Comfort Zone

Chapter 14 - Den of Snakes

So the girls wouldn't be late for school, Neko took Suzuka and Harumi and used her teleportation magic to return.

With everything that had happened at the hot springs, Suzuka and Harumi had a much greater degree of closeness. When Asahi noticed, she scoffed and looked away. Most of the others merely treated it as something expected.

After school, Suzuka decided to put some of Harumi's advice into practice. She'd decided to commit to Harumi, but still wanted to get closer with the other girls. She didn't have the heart to immediately reject everyone else.

"Hey, Hikari," Suzuka said, approaching the lamia. "Could you help me study for the alchemy test?"

"Eh? Me?" Hikari quickly grew flustered. "Um, I'd love to, but I have to help my sister tonight..."

"I can come over to your place, then," Suzuka said.

"Eh? W-would you be okay with that?"

"You'd be more comfortable that way, right?" Suzuka smiled. "I think it should be fine."

"Um, then, I'll let my sister know."

Hikari took out her phone. Several minutes later, she said, "Okay, um, you can c-come over."

"Great. Thanks in advance!"

Their archery practice passed by quickly, then Suzuka followed Hikari home.

On the way, Hikari said, "Um, Harumi is much better than me at alchemy."

"She gets easily distracted when we try to study together."

"A-ah, I see!"

"What are you helping your sister with?"

Hikari panicked, her face flushing. "E-er, th-that... that is..."

"Uh, forget I asked," Suzuka said, though she was now very curious.

Hikari's family lived in a very traditional way for lamias. Their home was carved into the stone of a cliff, with many winding tunnels and rooms branching off every now and then. Hikari and Ayame shared a room which was furnished like a human's, carpet and wallpaper covering the stones.

Suzuka glanced around. The room had one wide bed, which was a mess of blankets and pillows, and two separate desks. One was neat and tidy while the other was covered in loose sheets of paper and books. She couldn't immediately guess which desk belonged to which lamia.

"My sister will be back soon," Hikari said, a bit more relaxed in her own room. "Should we start now?"

"Works for me."

The two sat down on the floor and took out their school supplies.

Around fifteen minutes later, Ayame came to the room, carrying a plastic bag from the local convenience store. Her eyes lit up when she saw Suzuka. "Oh, hello, Youtomi!"

"Hello," Suzuka replied. "You can call me Suzuka."

Ayame was quite different from Hikari, despite them being sisters. She had mostly-straight brown hair and blue eyes, her scales a deep green. Her body's proportions and facial structure roughly matched Hikari's, with a sizable chest and sharp face.

Ayame sat down at the messy desk. "I've heard a lot about you from Harumi!"

"Um, I haven't heard anything about you."

"You two are going to be having sex soon, right? Please tell me all about it afterwards!"

Suzuka blinked, processing the statement. "What?!"

"I'm writing a story about human girls right now. Having a first-hand account about how things feel from a real human would help me out a lot."

Suzuka decided to set aside the lewd things, hoping to change the topic away from them. "You're a writer?"