The walk back and the second festival date.

Leonardo and Valerie stayed in that spot for a while longer, enjoying the view and the comfortable silence. Valerie leaned her head on his shoulder and held his hand in hers, squeezing it gently. Leo looked at her and smiled.

“You really do look great in that, you know?” he told her.

“Thanks. I was afraid you’d think I looked weird.”

“Not weird in the slightest. Almost want to do some naughty things to you in that,” he chuckled.

“Oh yeah?” she grinned. “And why don’t you do it?”

“Too many people around.”

“Then it would be fine if we went a little further into the woods?”

Leo blinked. “Have… you been talking to Reiko about… things?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Never mind,” Leo chuckled nervously.

The two stood up and retreated to the woods, leaving the noise of the festival for a quieter atmosphere. However, said quiet atmosphere made it possible to hear… other things.

Valerie frowned. “Is that…”

Yep. The moans and grunts were pretty clear from this distance. Behind some trees was a young couple fully enjoying the festivities in their own way. It reminded Leo of the time he and Victoria caught another couple doing it at the beach. She had said something about that, hadn’t she?

“Let’s leave them to do their thing,” Leo whispered with an apologetic smile. “We can do it back home.”

“I suppose…” Valerie sighed, clearly disappointed, though not dwelling on it too much. The two went back to the temple, walked down the slope and back into the noise and orange lights of the celebrations. “Kind of surprised someone else would think of actually doing that.”

“Victoria told me young couples in this island tend to get frisky like that, since there’s not that much to do around here.”

“Oh? You’ve caught someone else before?”

Leo nodded. And thinking about it, it would also kind of explain why Reiko was up for outdoor sex as well. Huh. Was it just part of their idiosyncrasy or something?

“Anyway. What do you want to do now?” he asked.

“There are still more stalls we haven’t seen, so we might as well.”

They kept walking around, browsing the items being sold and the games on offer. There was one that caught Leo’s attention, as there was a small container full of water and… goldfish swimming around.

Valerie laughed. “Look at that. It looks so weird.”

“How do you play this?” Leo asked the man in charge.

“You use this,” the man explained, gesturing to the scooper in his hand which looked to be made of some type of paper, “to catch as many goldfish as you can until it breaks. Be careful, it’s very delicate.”

“Want to try?” Leo asked Valerie.

The redhead pursed her lips and looked at the container closer, then she shook her head. “Nah, I’m fine.” The couple walked away from the stall, further enough that Valerie felt comfortable saying more. “I… don’t really like goldfish. They were fun to look at from a distance but from up close…” she shuddered. “I don’t know. I’m like that with all fish.”

“But you eat fish no problem,” Leo pointed out.

“Yeah. When it’s cooked I like it. But looking at a live or dead fish itself kind of disgust me.”

“Huh. Remind me not to take you to look at the fishery then.”

“Yeah.”

They walked around the festival some more, until eventually it was time to go back.

“You promised Lucia to walk with her to the festival, right?” Valerie asked.

“Yeah. So I’ll walk back home with you.”

As they made their way back, Leo sneaked a peek at Valerie’s face. She had a content, relaxed smile as they walked hand in hand, but he still felt the need to ask.

“Did you have fun?”

“Yeah. Not like I have any point of comparison since this is my first date ever,” she laughed. “But I had a good time. Kind of wish we could’ve gotten dirty and done it somewhere, though. Would’ve been exciting.”

Leo looked around and saw nothing but the empty streets. They were yet to arrive at the residential district, and the road lights in this part of the island were pretty far apart. Too open, perhaps, with no places to hide around. But with everyone at the festival…

“Come here.” Leo held Valerie by the waist and pulled her to him, catching her by surprise. He kissed her, his tongue probing her lips while his hand groped one of her breasts through her yukata.

“H-Here?” Valerie asked, looking around in a panic.

“You said you wanted to do it,” he teased.

“Not in the middle of the street!”

“Everyone’s at the festival. I’ll only use my fingers. Even if someone were to pass by they’d only see us making out.”

“…” Valerie bit her lip, conflicted. Then answered, “…Make it quick.”

They moved to the side of the road and stood behind a lamppost. Not hidden, but at least partially obscured. Valerie leaned back on the post as she and Leo made out. The more she tasted him, the less she cared they were outside. Leo then sneaked his hand inside Valerie’s yukata, trying as best he could to make it look like he was just hugging her. His fingers found her panties, and he felt them growing moist with every second. They found their way inside her underwear and teased her lower lip for a bit before she was wet enough to allowed them inside her.

“Hmmm!” Valerie moaned into Leo’s lips, her body shuddering and holding onto him tightly. Every once in a while her eyes darted around her to make sure no one was approaching, and Leo knew from her relief that they were, in fact, still alone.

Leo’s middle finger found the magic spot and wasted no time in rubbing it. The faint, wet and sloshing sound seemed louder in the quiet of the night. Valerie shut her eyes and bit onto one of the shoulders of Leo’s yukata to keep her voice in.

In a matter of a few minutes, Valerie shook from the intense waves of pleasure of her climax. She grunted into Leo’s shoulder, her face still noticeably red in the shadows of the street lights.

Satisfied with his work, Leo pulled in hand away and licked his finger, if only to give Valerie more visual stimuli as she came down from her high.

“Shit, that was good,” she chuckled tiredly. “But I’m not sure I want to do it again.”

“Too dangerous for you?”

“Exactly,” she sighed. “Let’s do it properly tonight when you get back. Or tomorrow.”

“Always willing,” he told her and kissed her forehead.

They returned to the house, and Valerie said her goodbye at the door. “I’ll go tell Lucia you’re waiting.”

“Thanks. Don’t wait for me if you’re tired, okay? There’s always tomorrow.”

He watched Valerie going into the house and waited outside for Lucia. Two dates with two women on the same night, and they both knew and were okay with it. How many men would kill to be in his shoes right now? Maybe not as many as one would think, if they knew how hard it was to balance things out.

After a few minutes, the door opened and from it walked a radiant-looking blonde. Though not the one he was expecting. His eyes widened at the stunning and mostly unexpected sight.

Angela walked out wearing a purple yukata with prints of big white roses. Her hair was tied into a bun, her skin had a subtle glitter from the makeup she was wearing and her lips were adorned with passion red lipstick. It wasn’t all that different from how Valerie had looked, but this was twice as surprising.

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up,” Angela said, gesturing dismissingly with her hand. “I look ridiculous.”

“If you tell me you have a date with another guy, I’m gonna be the most envious man in the world right now,” he told her with a calm, gentle smile. “You look incredible.”

Angela smirked and put a hand on her hip. “Well, I do have a date. With you, apparently.”

Leo blinked. “Huh?”

“…Lucia pushed me into this. She told me to go in her place. She and Seina dressed me up like this and practically pushed me out the door.”

Just as she said that, Leo’s phone buzzed. He gave it a quick look to see it was a message from Lucia.

‘Don’t worry and have fun. I know you’ll find a way to make it up to me.’

She had been looking forward to tonight. She had asked for this date herself. And yet…

“You were probably looking forward to date with her, right?” Angela asked, averting her eyes. “Yeah, this is dumb. I’ll go tell her to come out.”

“Don’t. Please,” Leo stopped her, putting a hand on her shoulder. He swallowed and took a deep breath. “I admit, I’m a little disappointed she’s not here. BUT I’m also really glad I got to see you like this. I’d love to go to the festival with you, Angela.”

“…” She looked at him for a moment before she let out a heavy sigh. “As friends. Nothing more.”

Leo shrugged and shot her an innocent smile. “Sure. As a friend trying to win you over again.”

Angela groaned and shook her head, but Leo could see she did it to hide the heat rising to her cheeks. “Let’s go. I was going to go on my own, so I still haven’t eaten anything.”

“Oh man. Then you’ll love the food stalls. I recommend we stop by the takoyaki stall first.”

They made their way to the festival, walking together yet maintaining a friendly distance between them. They arrived at the shrine and Leo saw Angela’s eyes shine when she saw it all.

“Holy crap. We don’t have anything like this where I’m from,” she said, eyes darting from place to place, taking it all in.

“The takoyaki stall is over here,” Leo pointed and Angela quickly followed. He bought two servings, but very much took his time eating his. He had already eaten enough, but he didn’t like leaving someone to eat by themselves.

“Mmm! It’s good!” Angela praised with her mouth half-full. “Why have you never made this at home before?”

“Never had an interest,” he admitted. “But I might make them every once in a while.”

Angela took another bite, eyes shining again. “This one had more octopus!”

Leo laughed. Girl really liked her food. She’d been like that since they met, he supposed.

They walked around, browsing the stalls. Leo’s second time, yes, but seeing Angela’s reactions to everything made it feel like a new experience in a way.

“By the way. Mind if I ask how the spar between you and Valerie went?” he asked. “Not the part about the wager, but the actual fight.”

“Oh! Listen to this. So, you remember when I first fought Coach Victoria, right? And she caught me in that triangle ****? I hadn’t been able to get that out of my head since I’d never done or seen anything like it. I watched videos and all after that, but the coach has been so busy teaching us the basics that we haven’t gotten to grapples yet. But I REALLY wanted to try them out, so I watched a single video over and over again until I memorized it and then tried it out on Valerie. It felt SO GOOD to pull it off in my first try! Thankfully the coach stopped me before I could hurt Valerie, but I still think back to that moment, you know? I remember clearly how I jumped in, how I got my arms around her, how I caught her, how I went for the ****…” Angela shuddered. “I’ve been in many fights before, but that spar, that friendly fight, is by far the most memorable until now.”

Angela continued and Leo listened carefully. She explained the moment to moment of the fight, her thought process, her worries of what Valerie could do, her decision to stop thinking about all that and just feel it out and see how things turned out. She explained it all with such an excited and innocent smile that was incredibly endearing. To Leo, it was proof that Angela didn’t enjoy **** itself, but the moment to moment thrill of a dangerous challenge. And Valerie was able to give her that. He was happy for her, genuinely so, but at the same time he couldn’t help but feel a little sad. She no longer needed him to satiate that hunger.

“There are a few other takedowns I’d like to practice,” Angela continued. “…Would you mind helping me? I know you can take it, but I promise I’ll still be careful.”

Huh. Like she was reading his mind.

“You just need to say the word.”

The two continued walking and talking for a long time, going back home after two hours, when the stalls were starting to close down.

---

Aunthor's Note: This may be a little sudden or maybe not, but I'm already planning to finish this story. I have many reasons for it, but the main ones are some severe burnout and not wanting to leave a third story unfinished. There are a few plot points I'll have to leave unfinished, but I'll try to wrap up the more important plotlines as best I can. Can't quite say how much longer we have, but I'm already writing with the ending in mind.

As always, thank you very much for reading. If you're interested, I go more into more detail in this post.

Stay safe and healhty everyone- Especially in these times.