The Case of the Missing Gym Rats (Open)

'No, it's okay,' Etain said smiling down at Riko. 'I've just gotta grab a few things, then we can go.' With that she walked to one of the two rooms on the far side of the main room.

Etain closed the door behind her. It was her bedroom. It contained a double bed, a bedside cabinet on either side, a chest of draws and two cupboards. Etain walked over to one of the cupboards and opened it. She changed out of her "meeting clients clothes" and, after a little rummaging, into her investigating clothes. She now wore a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, a simple blue t-shirt and a jacket over it. She closed the cupboard and walked to the bedside cabinet on the side of the bed that looked most slept on. She opened the draw and pulled out her collapsible baton.

She stood and looked at the other side. She sighed, reached out and stroked the pillows there. She felt tears streaming down her cheeks, and before she knew it, was on her knees, on the other side of the bed, hugging the pillow, crying into it.

Riko started off in the chair she had claimed as her own. It appeared she would have a bit more time to sit and think about things as she noted how she had worked through about half of the glass of water, while Etain's remained barely touched on the table in front of her. Eventually, she stood and took the two glasses into the kitchen. Cleaning a bit, after herself, at least helped to feel a little productive.

Of course that could only kill so much time. As long as it took to walk from the main room, to the kitchen, as a matter of fact. Etain remained in her room and Riko got the feeling it wasn't a debate over what to wear. Add to that her peculiar behavior from a few moments earlier and Riko didn't need much else to draw a conclusion. Something was bother the older detective.

This train of thought reached it's destination about the same time Riko reached the door that Etain had walked through. She stood, a little nervously, on the other side and hesitated. Should she intrude? Well, she didn't think it was a problem that would require kicking down the door, firing off a clever one-liner and dispatching some fiend that was threatening her.

Afterwards, Etain would say "Oh, thank you, Riko! I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been here!" and the scene would fade as Riko took the red head in her arms and dipped her as they kissed. Riko blushed and shook her head. This wasn't the time for that sort of nonsense! She resolved herself and gently rapped her knuckles against the door.

"Um, Etain?" she said.

"Are you oK?" was what she wanted to say. But what she did say, was "Can I get you anything?"

The tears just wouldn't stop, they kept coming as Etain sat, curled into a ball on the floor, hugging the pillow to her. She buried her face in it, her tears soaking into it.

The knock at the door, and Riko's voice calling her name made her head snap up. She wanted to stay on the floor, hugging her pillow, crying into it until she couldn't cry anymore. But she knew she had a job to do. She also didn't want Riko to see her like this, a crying, emotional wreck. She wanted Riko to only see her as the laughing, teasing, flirting detective.

'I... I... I'm okay,' she called out, her voice somewhat shaky, croaky. She flinched at the sound of her own voice, at the sound of tears in it. Also the fact she hadn't been asked if she was okay. She cleared her throat and tried again. 'I... I...' She couldn't finish as the tears flowed again, her vision blurring. 'I...' She buried her face in the pillow again, to make sure Riko didn't hear her sobs.

The picture was clear. Etain was in distress over something and it wasn't a matter that Riko would be able to solve through the door. She also wondered if it would be easier to track down those missing persons, as opposed to helping Etain with whatever she was going through. But, just like with the missing gym rats, she still had to try.

Riko wouldn't be able to look herself in the mirror if she just gave up on someone. So, she rested a hand on the doorknob and then pushed it open. Inside, she found the red head curled up in a ball on the floor and sobbing into a pillow.

She felt strongly empathetic towards the older detective. And although she knew nothing about her situation, Riko still walked over and took a seat next to her on the ground. "It's OK..." she offered. Truthfully, that didn't make much sense to her. She had no way of knowing if it would really be OK, or not. It just sounded like the right thing to say. Riko put an arm around her shoulders as she cried.

Hearing the door open, Etain curled tighter into a ball, burying her face deeper into the pillow. This is not how she wanted Riko to see her! It's not how she wanted anyone to see her! Curled up in a ball, crying like a baby!

She flinched even more as she heard Riko walk over to her, wishing the earth would open up and swallow her, then maybe she'd be able to see her again. That thought brought on a fresh wave of sobs. 'I... it can't be okay,' Etain said between sobs. 'She'll never come back.' She cried again, her body shaking with the sobs. She choked back the tears, managed to get herself under control. When Riko put an arm around her.

The floodgates opened again and Etian wrapped her arms around Riko, crying onto her shoulder, squeezing onto Riko as though she were afraid the girl would vanish. Would leave her alone, with her thoughts.

Dealing with loss was never easy. Even after time passed, sometimes those feelings had a bad happen of creeping up on you. Riko was familiar with that. She didn't respond to Etain. It seemed like the best thing to do was to ride it all out. As the other detective buried her face into her shoulder, Riko hugged her back. She was sure that Etain would be fine once she was done crying.

Fine, being used in a very relative sense. She wouldn't be OK with losing whoever she had lost for some time. But, it would get better. Riko felt pretty sure about that. Losing her father had been quite the blow. She still missed him, sure, but she had come to the realization that she couldn't spend her life being sad about it. She still had his memory and still had to live up to his example, after all.

Continuing to cry into Riko's shoulder, Etain tightened her grip on her, shaking her head. Why? Why was she crying? What had triggered it? She slept in this room, in this bed! So, why was she crying now, in front of this girl? She didn't know. No, wait, she did. She knew what had triggered it. That realisation helped calm her down. Her sobs quieted, her tears slowed. Soon she wasn't crying, though she still held onto Riko for awhile longer, drawing strength from the presence of the girl.

When she was calm enough, she sat back and wiped her eyes. 'S... sorry,' she said, smiling slightly at Riko. 'I... think I got your top wet.' She chuckled slightly, then sighed. 'I must look a right state.' She wiped her eyes again where tears were still slowly falling. 'I... didn't want you to see me like this,' she said. She swallowed and turned, picking up a picture from the bedside cabinet.

It was a picture of Etain, around seventeen, and an older woman. She had long, dark brown, almost black hair, and brown eyes, her lips were full and always seemed to be smiling. She had an arm around Etain's shoulders, her head resting against Etains. They were both smiling, though the older woman was blushing, Etain was just smiling, beaming.

Etain sat, stroking the face of the woman, smiling, a mixture of sadness and happiness. She looked at Riko and handed her the photo.

Gradually, Etain seemed to get the tears under control. Or, at least the feelings that had caused them had passed. Not that she was about to let go of the dark haired detective any time soon. Riko still hugged her and didn't let go until Etain seemed ready. When she did, Riko just sat on the ground and leaned back against the bed. She looked up with a soft smile.

"Ah...heh, it's just the uniform, I'm sure it'll be fine." she said. Although the shoulder was rather wet, following it's encounter with Etain's sobbing. "Don't worry about it. Besides, I don't think anybody wants to be seen like that. Still, it doesn't hurt to have someone around."

She took the picture that Etain had handed over and looked it over. The younger girl in the photo was clearly Etain. 'She looked really cute, too!' she couldn't help but think. The older woman, though, she did not recognize. Although she could certainly guess. Probably the "She" that Etain claimed would not be coming back. She nodded at her understanding.

"What was her name?" she asked, looking back up from the photo.

'I'll pay for any cleaning bills,' Etain said, remembering that it was Riko's school uniform, which caused her to blush slightly, returning the soft smile Riko gave her. 'Ah, I guess that's true. Especially if they're older detective and don't want to embarrass themselves in front of a younger, cuter detective.' She chuckled, then sighed. 'Noemi,' she said, almost choking on the name. 'Noemi Hasegawa. S... she... was my partner. My girlfriend.'

'I met her when I was a little older than you, and she was a little older than I am now,' Etain said. 'I'd been watching her on the train we got together, and the first time we spoke, I kissed her.' She chuckled. 'I thought she'd hate me, think I was weird. But the next time I saw her, she took me to a cafe and we got to talking. She surprised me by kissing me. We saw each other regularly after that. That photo was taken on the morning after our first night together.' She looked over to the other bedside cabinet, where another photo sat. 'That one was taken on the day of our second anniversary.' She looked back to Riko. 'We were together for three years. Or we would have been. S... she... I found her on the day of our third anniversary.'

Tears were rolling down her cheeks. 'She was killed!' She buried her face in her hands as the tears flowed afresh. 'The police questioned me about it for two days! I'd lost the love of my life and they thought I'd done it!'

"Oh I wouldn't be too worried about it." she said, "If I can't cover my own dry-cleaning then I'm a pretty lousy detective."

She could have explained exactly how she was employed with Mr. Ookami and the exact nature of that internship of hers. But at this point? Well, it seemed rather pointless to try and get into all that now. As Etain explained who the older woman was, the tears had returned. And also provided a rather curious problem. If she had found the body and the police had questioned her, then apparently Noemi had passed away under suspicious circumstances.

At some point, she would have to figure out what happened. She was sure that Etain was still investigating, but that didn't mean she couldn't lend her expertise to the case. Later, though. For now, Riko stood back up and hugged Etain, again.

When Riko hugged her again, Etain was slightly taken aback, not expecting the girl to hug her again. But she smiled and returned the hug. She swallowed before she continued. 'Her death is the reason I became a detective,' she whispered. 'I found out that she wasn't the only one to die like that. There have been deaths like hers all over the country. But I've never been able to find any real connection. Just that they seem to be ritualistic.'

She closed her eyes as the tears threatened again, as the memories of that day, two years ago, ran through her mind. 'I found her two years ago. And I've gotten nowhere with finding her killer!' The tears came again, along with the self-doubt. 'I'm a worthless detective! I can't do anything more than find lost pets!' She shook as she fought to keep control. 'I've... I've...' her voice faded as she managed to get herself under control. She closed her eyes and held onto Riko tight. 'You're the first person I've brought here since then,' she said. 'You're the only person, other than Noemi to have seen me like this. You're the only person other than Noemi to see this bedroom.'

She squeeze Riko to her, held her, then released her. She smiled at the the dark haired detective. She leaned in and kissed her cheek. 'Thank you,' she said. She stood with a groan, then held her hand out to the girl. 'Let's go, shall we?'

A ritualistic killing? With similar deaths all over the country and it hadn't been solved yet? As Riko hugged Etain, she began to wonder just why this case hadn't crossed Mr. Ookami's desk. Or to be more accurate, her desk. It was certainly the kind of thing she would have passed along.

"You shouldn't worry." she said, "And never doubt your instincts."

Etain squeezed her tightly. She hoped that she had at least imparted something that the detective would find useful. Riko looked back up, before blushing brightly after the redhead kissed her on the cheek. She smiled and took Etain's hand.

"Yes, let's go!"

'I know I shouldn't worry,' Etain said. 'And I shouldn't doubt my instincts, but two years? I feel like I'm letting Noemi, and the other victims, down.' She smiled and sighed. 'But it's only been two years since I started on the case, and if the police haven't cracked it yet, then what's the chances of me cracking it in only two years?'

Squeezing Riko's hand, Etain lead Riko out of her bedroom and into the mainroom. She rummaged in the shopping bag, before pulling out a couple of items. She grabbed a sports bag that lay on the floor behind the other chair, and stuffed the items into the bag, followed by several things from her other bag; her purse, notebook and pen. Her collapsible baton was also added to the sports bag, before she zipped it up. She stood, slipped it on and took Riko's hand again. 'Ready?' she asked, before leading the way from her apartment.


An hour later, Etain pulled up outside the gym where the three missing men were members. She turned off the engine and turned to Riko. 'Here we are,' she said. She turned to Riko and smiled. 'Let's see what we can find!' With that she grabbed her bag, stepped out of the car and shut the door.

She entered the gym and walked up to the front desk. She gave the girl behind the desk her best smile. 'Hello,' the girl said, returning Etain's smile. 'How may I help you?'
'We'd like to join.'
'The two of you?' Etain nodded. 'Okay, just fill out this form and away you go.' The girl put a form in front of Etain, along with a pen. Reading the form over, it was a simple membership form; name, age, address, email address, phone number. Etain filled them out, using one of several false identities she had created since an incident when she first started her business. She filled in Riko's form as well, using a similar identity to hers, then handed the forms back, with the fee. The girl looked them over then smiled at Etain. 'Thank you for joining us, please enjoy your time here!' Etain smiled at her, then turned to Riko.
'Let's go and get changed.' She smiled and lead the way to the changing room.

Riko gathered what she would needed to take, before they took off, leaving the apartment behind. Hand in Etain's she still blushed a bit as they got back in the car and were off driving towards this gym. She wasn't sure what she would be looking for when they got there. There just had to be something that was tying all three men together that she wasn't seeing.

---

Once they were at the gym, there met by a girl behind the front desk. Etain smiled and exchanged pleasantries, before filling out a form that would grant them access to use the facilities. Once all of the formalities were over and done with, they were free to roam about and dig for clothes. But first.

"Sure!" Riko followed Etain as she made her way to the changing room. She grinned and kept up the overall appearance of someone who was just happy to be there. Well, it wasn't like she wasn't. It just had to do with the fact that she also held a few ulterior motives to visiting.

When they got inside the changing room, the two detectives seemed to have a moment of privacy. Riko looked around, though, just to be sure.

"OK." she said, when the coast seemed clear, "It doesn't look like many people are here. Maybe you could hang around out front and keep that nice girl busy, while I see if there's anything to look for."

Entering the changing room, Etain glanced around, noticing that she and Riko were alone. No chatting, no shifting of bodies on toilets, no running water. They were alone. She sat on one of the benches and faced Riko.

'That sounds like a good idea,' she said. 'But, are you sure you're going to be okay?' she asked, concerned for Riko. 'I mean, I feel like I should be doing the snooping, and you doing the flirting.' She winked at Riko, though she was still worried. 'Just... be careful, okay? And yell if you need anything.' A blush coloured her cheeks as she realised what was going to happen next. 'Ummm... I... guess... we should get changed now.'

It might have been peculiar, but it wasn't unheard of. The recent disappearances could have been the culprit. But the explanation could have been as simple as an ordinary slow day. Either way, it presented them with an opportunity to do a little bit of planning.

"Oh, I'll be fine." she winked back, "Besides, between the two of us, I'd say you can be the more 'distracting' one. And I think that girl took quite a liking to you!"

Riko laughed a bit. She didn't see anything too dangerous, although it was only just a brief time she had spent here so far. With things as sleepy as they were, she was pretty sure that she could get around with relative ease. The hard part was figuring out what she was looking for. Then, it was Riko's turn to blush as Etain brought up the next step in their master plan. Changing.

"Um...yes. Th-that might be a good idea." she said, before setting bag down on the bench. Riko stood and hesitated a moment, before she slowly took out the outfit she had chosen to wear.

Unable to help herself, Etain laughed at what Riko said, even as her cheeks reddened. 'Flattery will get you somewhere,' she said once she'd calmed down. 'And what makes you think she'd taken a liking to me?' she asked, genuinely curious, as Riko could have seen something Etain hadn't.

Etain watched Riko sit, then turned to her own bag. She opened it, and picked out the outfit she had chosen to wear. She glaced over at Riko again, then stood. She began to remove her clothes, folding each item and putting them in a pile besides her bag. She then picked up her gym clothes and put them on.

The bottoms were the dark blue quarter lengths she had brought earlier. But instead of the top that came with it, she had put on the sleeveless vest from the final outfit she had tried on earlier. She sat and put on her trainers, then stood and faced Riko, her cheeks bright red. 'R... ready?' she asked.

"Oh don't pretend you didn't see the way she was smiling at you." Riko smirked, in a bit of a teasing fashion. "I think it's safe to say that you brought a little excitement to something of a dull day."

Not a great deal of evidence, but Riko felt it was a pretty good hunch. Eventually, though, she did have to get around to the actual act of changing into her work out clothes. Her uniform top had pretty much dried off by this point, so it hadn't drawn too much attention. Lucky enough for her. She removed her uniform and folded the items up, sneaking a quick peak Etain's way, before she donned the outfit she had picked out.

It was the dark shorts and tank top combination she had selected earlier. She looked back over at Etain, her blush continuing to build up quite the head of steam. "Y-yep!" she said, "Heh...told you, you were better suited for the flirty side of this job."

'Maybe I did, maybe I didn't,' Etain said, trying not to smile, though her eyes were sparkling. 'But maybe she prefers the cute ones to the... distracting ones?' she continued, teasing slightly. Etain had never thought of herself as beautiful or sexy, and couldn't call herself either. Though she had figured that others thought of her that way. 'Maybe if she plays her cards right, I could make it even more exciting.'

Seeing what Riko was wearing caused Etain's cheek to colour deeper. 'And you're just so cute I could hug you,' she said, trying to hide her embarrassment at the compliments she'd been given. She turned and reached into her bag again. She turned to Riko and held out her collapsible baton. 'Take this,' she said. 'Just in case. Besides, like you said, I've got the easy, safe, flirty job. And where could I hide it in this outfit?' she asked, indicating what she wore. 'I'd feel better if I knew you had something to protect yourself with.'

Riko blushed a bit. She certainly thought that girl was cute. But, next to Etain, did she really stand a chance at getting noticed? Well, that was something she would have to worry about later. Right now, they did have a job to do. She snickered a little, "Lucky girl." she said, "She'd be crazy not to play her cards right."

Still quite red in the face, she took the baton and looked it over, before looking back up to Etain. She was a bit puzzled by it. "Why am I going to need this?" she said, "It's not like we're walking into some Yakuza club."

She smirked a bit, but found some room in one of her pockets. At least it seemed pretty portable. Well, that seemed to be that. She had some snooping to do!

"Alright, you go and distract our pretty friend out there and I'll sneak around back."

Blushing again, Etain smiled at Riko, then sighed. If only they weren't in the middle of a case. 'Well, we'll see,' she said. 'Though I still think she's more the type to go for cute girls.'

'Like I said, it's mainly for my own peace of mind,' Etain said. 'Besides, it never hurts to be prepared for any eventuality.' She smiled at Riko and held her hand out, the fingers closed. 'To open it, just give you wrist a sharp flick. Then push the tip to collapse it again.'

When she saw Riko slide the baton into one of the pockets, Etain felt instantly better. At least if she got into trouble, she'd be able to defend herself. 'I guess I have no choice, do?' she teased. 'Well, I guess I'll go take one for the team!' She gave Riko a playful salute, before smiling. She turned to leave, but turned and leant down. She planted a light kiss on the girls cheek. 'Good luck,' she said, before she turned and left the changing room.

"Sure, fair enough." Riko shrugged her shoulders, before watching Etain's demonstration. It seemed like an easy enough concept. Just give a quick flip of the wrist and you had a handy little baton. Good, for...well, hitting people, mostly.

"Yeah, take one for the team." Riko gave a playful role of her eyes, "Because I'm sure hitting on the cute girl is going to be such a challenge for you."

Etain surprised her with yet another quick kiss to the cheek that left Riko with a terrible blush that refused to go away. She watched Etain leave and waited there for a few more minutes. It was both a good time to try and pull herself back together and to allow the older detective some time to get to work. Once she was sure that Etain was getting started, Riko stepped out of the locker room and took a quick look around.

Finding an empty hallway, she walked around. Etain had gone back up by the front desk, so Riko opted to go in the opposite direction. She was sure she could find an office, or something around there somewhere. As she walked around, she noticed her surroundings continued to be rather empty. Getting closer to where the employees were set up, she was sure not to bump into any other members. It was a risky move, but one that she was willing to take.

On high alert, Riko started to peek around corners and tried to see if she would bump into anyone. There were a few close calls, but she had managed to stay out of sight and soon found her way to what had to be the boss' office. What luck!

Whoever was in charge didn't seem to be around. It was getting late in the day, so most likely he had left for home, leaving things to the employees that would be in charge of shutting things down. Riko smirked to herself and slipped inside the office. In the fading sunlight, she could make out enough of her surroundings to not need a light Which was good, because she didn't want to draw any attention.

A quick check on the computer saw that it was password locked. That wouldn't be helping her out very much, unless he conveniently left his password laying around. So she sought out other forms of clues. Papers were all over the desk, but none seemed to be pertinent to anything other than member information.

Riko took a quick look through the waste basket and saw mostly wrappers or scraps of paper. One thing did catch her eye, however. It was a bigger piece, crumpled up into a ball and seemed to be made differently the other pieces. She took it out and smoothed it out as best she could.

"Hm...ad for another gym." she muttered to herself. There didn't seem to be anything special about it at first glance, but she stuck it in her pocket, anyways. Riko looked around on the desk and spotted a pad of paper. Something had been roughly written upon one page, judging by the indentation on the blank sheet that was left on top.

Riko lightly moved a few papers around, making sure to put them back in their proper place afterwards. That was how she spotted the memo. It mentioned something about a cancellation of one of the members plans. As a matter of fact, it was one of the ones that had gone missing. Curious, she turned her attention back to that pad of paper.

Grabbing a pencil, she lightly brushed the graphite against the page until she make out the characters that had been hastily written down.

"Ask for Ichiro"

It said, and included an address. She checked with the flyer. Sure enough, that was the where the gym was located. 'Very interesting.' Riko thought as she folded both items up and slipped them into her pocket. 'Now...let's see how Etain is doing with that girl.'

Another smirk stretched across her face as she slipped back out and made her way back towards the front desk.

While she came across as a confident, outgoing woman, who was an outrageous flirt(which she was), Etain found it hard to flirt when she wanted it. Sure she had flirted with Riko, but it was a spur of the moment thing, a natural thing. But she'd always found it hard to flirt on cue. She paused when she saw the girl behind the counter, who was looking out the door, a bored look on her face. Etain took a deep breath, to remove the blush from her cheeks, and to calm herself down. She nodded and continued towards the counter.

As she neared, Etain actually looked at the girl; shoulder length dark hair, light brown eyes, lips that look like they should be smiling, not down down turned due to boredom, as they were now.

The girl looked over at her as she neared, and it took all of Etain's will power and training not to giggle as the girl sat up, her cheeks colouring, her eyes opening wide. 'Hi,' Etain said as she stood in front of the desk.
'H... hi,' the girl replied. Etain smiled at her, placing her hands on the counter top. 'H... how may I h... help you?'
'Oh, it's okay,' she said, still smiling at the girl. 'It's just so... quiet here. So empty. I like to talk to someone when I'm exercising, but there's no one to talk to.' She sighed dramatically, the movement sure to attract the girls eyes to a certain area. 'But then I remembered you, and figured you'd be bored, just standing here, all on your own.' The girl looked up at Etain's face, her cheeks red, and Etain knew where she'd been looking.

'B... but what about your... sister?' the girl asked, obviously fishing for information on their relationship.
'Rika?' Etain sighed, then shook her head. 'She's all right, but she doesn't like talking while she's exercising.'
'So she is your sister?' Etain nodded, picking up on the barely contained excitement in the girls voice.
'Well, half sister.' The girl sighed and smiled back at Etain.
'So, what do you want to talk about?' the girl asked, her voice dropping slightly as she leaned forwards.

It was amazing the change that small piece of information made in the girl. She seemed more sure of herself, outgoing. And definitely flirty. Etain smiled as she also leaned forwards, her smile growing. 'Well, I'd like to know more about you,' she said, her voice dripping seduction. The girl arched an eyebrow and smiled.
'Well, what would you like to know?' Etain arched and eyebrow and leaned in closer.
'Everything,' she breathed.


Whispers and giggling could be heard coming from the area of the front desk as Etain and Kotomi, the girl on the front desk, got to know each other better. Etain was leaning on the counter, one leg partly raised, so she could lean over the desk. She whispered something into Kotomi's ear, which caused the girl to blush deeply but giggle, only for her to whisper something to Etain. The red head arched an eyebrow and smirked. 'Oh, really?' she asked. She reached forwards and stroked Kotomi's cheek, down to her chin. 'I may have to take you up on that,' she breathed, her lips closing in on Kotomi's.

"Rika" had made a slight detour, back into the locker room. All of her purloined goodies were promptly stashed into her bag and tucked away for further review, later. She also dropped off the baton, which was really quite inconvenient to carry around, even if it was in her pocket. Honestly the thing seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. And, if it should fall out when she was in the middle of the gym, she certainly didn't want to have to explain what she was doing carrying around a snap baton.

Now safely back to the identity of just a new member at this particular gym, Riko strolled back out and continued on her way towards the front desk. As she rounded the corner, she caught sight of Etain and the girl behind the desk. It didn't take an expert in reading body language to figure out that she was making some serious headway in keeping her distracted. She stifled her giggling, as she peeked around that corner to see the older detective have a little back and forth whispering before she leaned in.

'Way to go, Etain!' she thought, a slight blush on her cheeks as she watched the impending kiss. As a matter of fact, that provided her with the perfect opportunity. Waiting for the right moment, Riko made her way past the desk and down the opposing hallway to where the actual gym was. To her right was the entrance to the men's locker room. Riko halted and turned to poke her head out from around the corner to see if she still had a good view of Etain and the other girl.

...Just to make sure that she hadn't been noticed passing by, of course.

Her lips brushed against Kotomi's as she closed her eyes. Though Etain kept an eye half open as she didn't want anyone to come walking in and ruin the mood. Though a small part kind of wish someone would ruin the mood. Etain liked Kotomi, and she didn't want to lead the girl on. More than she already had.

But the moment their lips actually met, all thoughts vanished as the softness of Kotomi's lips, and the flavour, Strawberry lipgloss, surprised her. As did the sudden passion of the girl. Gone was the flirty, but still quiet shy girl, to be replaced by a passionate, accomplished kisser. Before she knew it, Etain found herself sitting on the counter, leaning into the kiss as her hands entangled themselves in Kotoni's dark hair.

Though a small corner of her mind hoped that Riko was doing okay.