I took Ria via a different route than the one we usually took. Luckily she didn’t really question why, probably thinking I wanted to take the scenic route along the park rather than the fastest route which didn’t have a lot of greenery. There was no sign of anything suspicious.

-Maybe it really was just a weird coincidence?- I shrugged it off, having reached the front of my house without incident.

“Shima, guess who’s here!” I opened the door and immediately called out to our cat. Ria-chan was standing close behind me.

It didn’t take long for us to hear the tip tapping of Shima’s paws coming closer.

“Meow!”

“Shima!” Ria went down on her knees with Shima immediately coming up to rub her head against Ria’s legs.

“Your tights are going to be completely covered with Shima hair.” I laughed, closing the door and patting Shima on her head.

“I don’t mind. I love Shima after all…” Ria picked Shima up and cuddled her.

“Well, let’s just roll most of it off your uniform before you leave, Emma and Karin don’t have pets after all.”

“Except for their pet hamster though!”

“Indeed, except for Robert, their pet hamster.” I softly karate chopped Ria-chan on the head which prompted her to stick out her tongue at me.

Ria stayed in the entryway for a bit longer, cuddling Shima, while I moved to the living room to get rid of my bag.

“Do you want to drink something, Ria?” I called out to her from my fridge.

“Just some tap water is fine.” She called back.

-Phew, at least I don’t have to worry about the bottles for now...-

I filled her a glass of water and took it with me. “Is there anything specific you want to do today?”

“Hmm…” Ria-chan put Shima down while she was thinking. “Since we finished our homework… can we just read some manga?”

“Of course.” I smiled and waited until Ria also got rid of her bag.

Walking into my room together, while Ria took a sip from her glass of water.

“Aren’t you thirsty Rora? I’ve not seen you drink at all today.”

“Ah, not really.” I sat myself down on my bed.

“But you need to drink otherwise you’ll get a headache again!” Ria sat down next to me, pouting slightly while drinking from her glass.

“I’m fine really.” It was hard not to beam at her concern for me. “I’ll drink something later, ok?”

“Fine then.” She pouted again and put her glass down on my small coffee table.

“Want to continue reading that manga you were reading last time? Last week I got the last two volumes delivered as well.”

“You did!? I really like that manga!”

“I know, that’s why I ordered it.” I smiled and walked over to my bookcase, taking out the book that had the bookmark in it. “Here you go Ria.” I handed it over to her and looked at the other volumes. The manga was called ‘My heart trebles on your bass’ - from what I’d read in the blurb it’s about a girl who falls in love with her senpai after she sees her playing the bass guitar with her band at the opening ceremony.

-Maybe I should read it as well so I can talk about it with Ria…-

My eyes quickly shot over the other titles in my bookcase. While not all the titles were yuri, most of them were, and more specifically most of those were favourites of Ria too.

“S-say Ria... “ I wanted to ask her why she was so into the genre. “Uhm…”

“What’s wrong, Rora?” She looked up from the page she was reading, her eyes filled with innocence.

I blushed and my voice got stuck in my throat - I just couldn’t get the words out. “D-do you think I should read it as well?”

“Treble?” She tilted her head.

“...Yeah…”

“Yes! It’s super cute, and the art as well. The senpai character always makes me think of you.”

“Does she?”

“Yes yes!” She hopped off my bed, ran over and grabbed Volume 1 out of my closet and pulled me by my hand. “Come! Let’s read together!”

She pulled me to my bed and crawled on top of it, making me follow suit.

“Looks like I have no choice in the matter?”

“Nope.” She giggled and grabbed my pillow, fluffing it up and putting it against the wall. “If you sit like this and I sit in your lap we can both read.

“O-okay…” -Ria-chan, you are going to kill, murder, destroy and annihilate my poor gay heart….- I sat down as she requested, after which Ria nestled herself in my lap.

“Are you comfy Rora?” She looked back at me with that same uber cute innocent smile, as I struggled in vain to prevent my face turning as red as one of the guitars on the cover.

“Y-yeah.” I nodded.

“Alright, tell me when I need to turn the page, okay?”

“Mhmm.”

Ria started to narrate the story, using an amazing range of voices to do so. This thankfully distracted me for a while from how snugly she fit against my body. So much so that I subconsciously locked my arms around her waist and ended up resting my chin on her shoulder. The steady rhythm of her breathing had calmed me down, almost making me fall asleep.

“Are you still listening, Rora?”

My eyes shot wide open. “Uh yeah, sorry.” -Wait… I almost fell asleep? How?-

“Geez, Rora, you need to pay attention…”

“I-I know, s-sorry… I just got a bit distracted.” I blushed.

“I’ll reread the last couple of pages then.” Ria-chan dutifully went ahead and started reading while I was still holding her against me. -I guess she doesn’t mind... -

I continued to indulge in Ria’s softness, though this time I tried to keep my attention on her reading as well.

“So which part did you like most?” We had read through the entirety of Volume 1 and Ria was almost jumping to get my feedback.

“I really liked the entire volume to be honest. But if I had to pick, I really liked the concerts.” I smiled softly at her. “So, you really think I’m like the senpai, huh?”

Ria nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! She’s as cool as you, maybe a little cooler because she plays bass though.”

“Maybe I should learn to play bass too then.”

“Hmm. I think you would suck at that.” She smirked playfully.

“Oh, do you now?” I started tickling her waist.

“No! Rora! Stop!” She almost started crying out of laughter, tossing and tumbling her body around to escape me. Somehow she managed to roll both of us over on our sides, making me instinctively roll over to get on top of her.

“Gotcha.” I smiled.

“Mhmm.” Ria laughed, slightly out of breath. During our playing a couple of her buttons had come loose. Her laboured breathing made her exposed neckline look incredibly enticing. I slowly brushed a few strands of hair away, so I could get an even better look at it. The thirst that had been absent all day long slowly crept back as I got drawn closer and closer to her. My heartrate spiked.

“Rora?” Ria-chan’s innocent voice pulled me out just in time. “Is everything alright?”

“A-ah…” I stuttered. “I might be getting thirsty after all…” I rolled off of her and sat on the edge of my bed, rubbing my eyes.

-I almost bit Ria….-

“Want me to get you some water, Rora?” She crawled towards me and patted my back.

“Nah… I will get some myself, thanks for the offer though…” I tried my best to laugh it off.

-I really do need to drink something right now or I’m gonna go crazy…-

I stood up from my bed and headed over to the living room, Ria followed me and sat down at the living room table.

Opening the fridge I tried my best to hide the bottles from Ria but her sharp eye immediately caught on.

“What are those bottles, Rora? Do you drink wine?”

“It’s just grape juice...”

“Oh, can I have some too?”

“...Of course…”

I quickly looked through the bottles to find the correct one to give to Ria-chan.

“This one should do.” I inspected it closely, it had the letter G, and poured a glass out for my ...friend.

-This definitely is grape-juice.- I let out a sigh of relief but smelt the glass just to be extra sure.

-Yep, yep, grape-juice.- And handed the glass over to her while I went back to open a different bottle for me.

“Are you liking it, Ria?”

“Mhmm! It’s very tasty! But it does remind me of a brand I’ve tasted before though.”

“...Well…it’s grape juice after all, how different can the brands be, right?” I poured a glass for myself.

“Mhmm, I guess you are right. But why does your grape juice look so different? And why the different bottle - is it different from the one I drank?”

-Shit… I didn’t think of that...-

“Uuuh….” I tried to figure out a plan to get out of this pickle but my brain came up empty.

“Is it like a special juice to help with your migraines?”

“Yes!” I thanked the heavens for Ria-chan freely volunteering a way out for me. “I added a powder to some of the bottles that make it a bit thicker and quite a bit saltier. I figured you wouldn’t like that.”

Ria shuddered. “Yeah that doesn’t sound like something I’d like.” She was a sweet tooth after all.

“Tell you what, I still got a couple of ice cream cones in the freezer, want one, as a little pre-dinner dessert?”

“Yessss! Ice cream!”

I smiled and put the bottles back in the fridge.

“Strawberry ice cream coming right up.”

“Yaaaaaaay!”