Wake up

"Rise and shine, Haruka~!"

The sight that greets you as you awaken from your slumber is your cousin, her beautiful, smiling face mere inches away from your own. For the second time today, you can't help but acknowledge her as smoking hot. Mentally, of course, because you're awake enough to know that actively telling her right now would be a very weird conversation-opener, especially when you can feel that you've just woken up in the front seat of her old-fashioned automobile. This of course, does not stop your gaze from shifting minutely downwards, admiring the way in which her red t-shirt clings to the curvature of her breasts.

Not that you can linger for long, because she immediately leans back, standing straight once more outside her car. It's here that you realise that you've reached your destination. Her residence, a one-storey building that, like all the other houses in this outskirt neighbourhood of Agami City, looks positively antique. It's a small, compact-looking house, dimly lit by the streetlamps, but you wonder how much it cost for Konomi to actually afford this place. Even if it's in the outskirts, disconnected from the metropolitan core, the fact that she can try and live a life close to that of the past suggests she's pretty wealthy.

No wonder she could take you in without any complaints.

Hopefully of course, the house has at least some modern comforts.

You unclick yourself out of the seatbelt, sliding past the barrier between the car and the outside world and meeting the cold air of the night. Konomi stands there in wait, her crossed arms propping up her chest in a very appreciable manner. Now that you're both out of the car, you have a clearer view of the tight jeans she's wearing, the blue denim clinging to her long legs. She's also wearing white runners, but you gotta say, the pants are a lot more interesting to you.

"So this is your place, huh?" you say, reluctantly tearing your eyes from her to the house behind her. "I can't say I'm surprised."

"Pssh," she says with a laugh, waving her hand at you dismissively as she turns around to head towards the door. "I didn't want you to be surprised anyway. I can do that in other ways, you know?"

"Like by not having any modern conveniences?" is your drawling reply as you follow her down the path to the wooden door. "That would be a pretty horrible surprise."

Konomi tuts as she takes out a key - an actual, _mechanical_ key - and slots it into the lock. "I'm not _that _ into the good old days. Keeping the aesthetics is all I need?!"

"Like a poser?" you have to ask.

"Hey, I'm not a poser, I'm a pragmatic aficionado!" she protests, fiddling with the key. That doesn't really make sense to you, but it sounds like you've managed to get a point off her in your semi-competitive relationship, which is what's really important here.

The door opens, and she enters. You follow, offhandedly noting the look of the place as you two make your way to the living room. As your cousin has said, it's mostly aesthetics that she's aped (although given she actually manually drove a car, she certainly makes sure to go full steam ahead when it counts). There's one of those old televisions, but you can clearly tell it's just an excessively large volumetric interface projector for her network hub; it's actually getting a bit old-fashioned these days as implants grow more sophisticated and reduce the difficulties involved with entering VR on the go, but it's at least something from the last decade rather than nearly a century ago.

"I'll give you the network privileges later," says your cousin casually, noticing your gaze upon her pseudo-television. "Anyway, you should catch some Zzz's. I've got your room set up and everything!"

You are feeling tired, but you also feel an urge to catch up with her somewhat.