The battle was over which meant that it was time to see all of the results. However…

I – I’m gonna be honest…

I’ve been thinking about our date too much to know what to do for the rewards and exploration and all that…

So… can we save that for after the date?

Besides, you beat the battle, so that counts as enough plot/game progress for now!

Window herself was the one who let us be lazy and not have to deal with the aftermath of the battle yet. All we had to do was return home, share a dinner together that consisted of pork loin, some vegetables, and various mixed drinks, and then we went to do our own things before going to sleep.

I had some more thinking about the date to do, so I ended up heading to bed first so that I could think about it with some peace and quiet.

Unfortunately, that peace and quiet was what led to me falling asleep instead of getting much thinking done. It was rare for me to actually have some time to myself like that.

Vala ended up playing games with Cami, Lavi and Clawdia watched a show together about giant robots – mechas, and Delphi organized her new bone collection into several different piles over by Valkyria so that Valkyria could watch over them for her whenever she was away.

Everybody had their own thing to do. As for Window, she was probably doing something similar to me and thinking about the date.

But while I might have fallen asleep alone, I didn’t wake up the same way.

The next morning, I woke up to a sensation that I learned to expect every single morning. That sensation was the feeling of soft warmth in the form of Delphi pressing her chest against my head. There was about a fifty percent chase of her outright smothering my face against the top of her breasts and a fifty percent chance of her hugging my head as tightly as she could from the side. Whatever it is, almost every single morning, I woke up to her chest somehow in contact with my head.

Not that there was anything to complain about.

Then there was Vala who ruled over my chest. Just like the first few times we slept together, she loved to curl up on my chest and enjoy the warmth just like a lizard would. That left my arms free for Cami and Lavi. Cami was the type who would try to wrap both her arms and legs around my right arm, curling herself around it as much as she could while leaning her head against my shoulder. On the opposite side of my side, Lavi was there with a much simpler sleeping habit. She seemed to prefer only holding hands while putting some distance between herself and the rest of us. Given that she usually had her shirt pulled up to her chest and her sleeping shorts pushed down some, I figured that she must not have been a big fan of all the body heat being exchanged. There was also the fact that she’d push the covers off of herself.

But they weren’t all.

Now that Clawdia was a member of our relationship, even if she was still getting used to everybody, she joined us on our bed. Lavi might have looked like the messiest sleeper given that she basically made it halfway through undressing herself every single night, but Clawdia – well, Clawdia took it to a new level. She was usually sprawled out over my legs with her body twisted into all sorts of shapes that looked like they would cause somebody horrible back pain. And, surely enough, she always had her belly out in the open similar to Lavi. Even if there was no fur on her… I still wanted to touch her belly and rub it. There was just this sort of irresistible temptation drawing me toward her skin. Maybe it was the cat ears and tail she had but, when I looked at her, I saw her belly as a forbidden fruit that was never meant to be touched.

That made me want to touch it all the more.

Sure, Lavi’s belly was also exposed, but that was a belly that I knew I could rub and play with at any time without her ever getting mad. She might get embarrassed, but she wouldn’t get mad. Nobody with dog ears would ever get mad at such a touch.

But a woman with cat ears? Not just cat ears, but a woman with cat ears who was former royalty with a major attitude? Even if she told me it was fine to touch her belly while high on catnip before, there was still something so… taboo about her belly.

Yet, I was not able to touch it. I was not able to take advantage of her in her sleep as drool slid from her mouth down her cheek. She was in such a deep state of sleep that I probably could have done anything I wanted to her forbidden belly, but Cami and Lavi made sure that my hands were occupied already. Not to mention that I wouldn’t have been able to reach without leaning up and disturbing Vala and Delphi.

All I could do was stare at Clawdia’s belly.

I never knew that a non-fluffy sight so could be tempting to rub my hands and face all over. Even worse, I was too awake to go back to sleep and dream about it.

As I lay there, surrounded by women who loved me and wanted nothing more than to cuddle with me, I thought about how unfortunate my life was. How cruel and torturous the universe was to present Clawdia’s belly to me without granting me the ability to reach out and rub it.

It was almost enough to bring a tear to my eye.

Then, as if to torment me even more…

Clawdia stretched in her sleep, arching her back and pushing her belly up into the air. It was like a beautiful, arched bridge of smooth skin just begging to have my hands run all over it. Her lean figure looked so delicate to the touch that I was worried even a little bit of pressure would break her, yet there was not a softer looking belly than hers.

I found myself heavily breathing as my cheeks turned red, my eyes straining to fill my sight with as much of her belly as possible.

And then the worst possible thing in the world happened. I knew that her appearance could only mean the destruction of my hopes and dreams.

Window.

Window appeared over Clawdia’s body, tilted her rectangular shape to snag Clawdia’s shirt on her corner, and then continued rotating her shape to pull the shirt down over Clawdia’s stomach.

She covered Clawdia up.

Then, after successfully hiding the most tantalizing of treasures, Window floated there staring directly at me. She might not have had eyes, but she faced me with the front of her shape and angled herself so that she was directly in front of me.

She was judging me. I could tell that much.

Not a single word, letter, number, or period needed to show up on her body to express her emotions to me.

It was the day of our date yet there I was, gawking and drooling over a cat girl’s exposed belly. Only, instead of gawking and drooling like I was before, all I could do was silently cry.

I could but weep and naught more.

Weep for the loss of the belly.

Weep for the loss of perfection.

Weep for—

i will end u

“Good morning to you too, Window,” I whispered, trying not to wake the other girls up.

You’re really trying to speedrun being the worst possible person in all of existence today, aren’t you?

“Look at it this way, I’m lowering your expectations so that I can’t possibly disappoint you with the date.”

That’s…

That’s actually a pretty good excuse for being horrible. I’m impressed. Congratulations, you raised my expectations by impressing me. Which means that you’re failing your task of lowering my expectations, meaning that you’ve lowered my expectations by being a failure… meaning that you’ve succeeded in lowering my expectations, but your success raises my expectations, which…

oh no

it’s a perfect loop

WHAT DO I DO? AM I SUPPOSED TO BE IMPRESSED OR UNIMPRESSED? ARE MY EXPECTATIONS SUPPOSED TO BE LOWERED OR RAISED?

“Both. Simultaneously.”

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO THAT

“Easy. Create a clone of yourself. Make one version of yourself impressed and the other unimpressed.”

That’s a good – wait.

I see what you’re doing here. You’re trying to make me clone myself so that you can take two of me out on a date at once! You want me to clone myself so that I end up turning both me and my clone into our date form so that you can have one of me on each arm!

“That is not at all what I was thinking of, but now I am, so now I’m curious.”

Well, you can stay curious because it’s totally not happening.

Probably.

Maybe.

…

It… it does sound kind of fun…

I don’t know! We’ll see!

“Look at it this way, Window. If there’s just one of you, I can only wrap one arm around you while walking. Or only hold one of your hands. If there are two of you, that’s double the affection I can give you.”

…

we’ll see.

And what’s gotten into you anyways? You’re being all… nice.

“Because it’s our date day and I want to make it good for you.”

u-uhhuh-uh-huh. I bet you’re actually just so aroused or something from Clawdia’s belly that it’s making you act romantic out of desperation.

“…”

AT LEAST DENY IT. DON’T YOU ELLIPSIS ME.

I sighed and wished that I had the willpower to free one of my hands so that I could flick Window. “I deny it. I’m serious. I want to give you a good date. Besides, it’s kind of my first real date going out into public with somebody. I want to make sure that it goes well for my own pride, you know. How do you think I’m going to feel about having a ‘harem’ when I can’t even take a single girl out on a date?”

I… I guess that’s a good point. So, you’re more interested in your own pride…

“I’m more interested in making you happy. Keeping my pride is a bonus.”

>////>

Do – do you even have pride anymore after almost staring holes into Clawdia’s belly?

“I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”

Heh…

Okay. I’m fine now. Uh… I guess… we can just sort of… wait until the others wake up, then you can get ready to go?

Delphi, Cami, Lavi, and Vala all let go of me and got up.

“We’ve been awake, so you don’t need to wait for us!” Vala said. “It’s time for you to go on your date!”

“Wait… how long have you been awake for?” I asked.

“A while.”

“Then why didn’t you say or do anything?”

“We did do something. We pretended to be asleep so that we could stay in bed cuddling for longer.”

“I – you—”

That is technically doing something.

I sighed again, knowing that I lost the battle.

“What about Clawdia?” Cami asked, looking at the sleeping cat queen.

Lavi poked Clawdia’s cheek and then wiped her finger onto the sheets to get the drool off. “She’s a really heavy sleeper.”

“Delphi,” Vala said, “can you get her?”

“I can!” Delphi answered. “Oh! But first!” Delphi leaned over my face, squished my cheeks between her hands, and planted a kiss directly against my lips while her tail wagged behind her. “Ehehe, good morning, Master! Have fun on your date!” As soon as she finished talking, she got up and rushed over to Clawdia. She then proceeded to, not so gracefully, lift Clawdia up and sling her over her shoulder.

Clawdia managed to stay asleep the entire time, still drooling in her deep slumber even as her upper half was hung upside down behind Delphi’s back. Not even the wagging of Delphi’s tail was able to interrupt her rest as it repeatedly whacked her.

“Good idea,” Cami said, copying what Delphi did by leaning over me and kissing my lips. “Have a fun date.”

Once Cami’s turn was over, Lavi looked around with blushing cheeks before taking her own turn by kissing me. “Have… have a nice date, Master. If – if ya don’t, I’m gonna have to punish ya!” She looked like she wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to say, so she quickly removed herself from me.

And then there was Vala.

With a grin that suited a cat more than a dragon, Vala scooted up along my chest and kissed my cheek before kissing my lips. “Make sure to do lots of lewd things to Window while you can, alright? If you don’t make it to at least second base then I’m banning you from hugs for five seconds.”

As surprised I was to hear about expecting us to make it to at least second base, I was more shocked by the tiny ban on hugging. “Only five seconds is a softer punishment than serving somebody room temperature water as a punishment!”

“I know… but if it’s longer than five seconds then it’s going to punish me more than it’s going to punish you! Do you know how hard banning you from hugging for five seconds will be?! What kind of toll it’ll have on all of our bodies?!”

“But we go without hugging for more than five seconds all the time!”

“But that’s different! There’s a difference between being able to hug but not, and not being able to hug at all! It’s like the difference between holding your breath for five seconds versus suffocating when you break a dirt block above you and getting trapped in gravel!”

“That – that… that actually makes sense. Somebody holding their breath is no big deal. Somebody not having any breath at all against their will is something way more serious.”

Vala nodded along. “See? You get it!”

“Alright. I’ll accept your threat as a serious punishment.”

DON’T GO ACCEPTING A PUNISHMENT FOR SOMETHING THAT INVOLVES DOING… DOING THAT WITH ME! THERE’S NO GUARANTEE THAT ANYTHING LIKE THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN.

A smug smile spread across Vala’s face as she looked at Window. “You really think you’re going to be able to resist when you’re finally in your date mode with him without any of us around? Heh. I know you, Window. You’d cave before any of us.”

ANYWAYS, I HAVE TO GO GET READY.

I’M NOT LEAVING BECAUSE IT’S SUDDENLY AWKWARD AND EMBARRASSING OR ANYTHING BECAUSE VALA IS 1000000% WRONG.

And just like that, Window vanished.

Vala looked back at me with a sly smile instead of the smug one she just had. “You know… I can clone myself, too, if you want to try something like that.”

“You were paying attention to that part, too?” I asked.

“Heh. Just kidding. You already have enough waifus without me cloning myself, and you’re nowhere near done gaining them. Plus it would take away from the appeal if Window clones herself. Only one waifu should use that power or else it’s no longer a unique gimmick and loses its charm. The balancing of waifus is even more important than vidya balance! And food balancing! And even bank balancing!”

“It sounds like you snuck something in there to justify eating junk food all the time.”

“A-anyways, I’m gonna go play some vidya now.” Vala got off of my chest and stretched her arms, wings, and tail. “Have fun with your date!”

I was left alone in the bedroom after that.

Guess I’ll get ready then, I thought before walking over to the dresser made out of cat bones and fur. We needed to use all the stockpiled cat materials on something, after all, and we also needed some furniture for the house.

And fortunately, Vala was nice enough to give all of us some normal clothes in the dresser. That meant I could actually take Window out on our date without dressing up like some sort of wannabe barbarian.

After getting ready, it was finally time for my date with Window. I had no idea what to expect considering that I never got to see her in any form other than a floating rectangle before, but I was excited.

I wondered if I’d still be able to pick her up and throw her in whatever form she was going to take for our—

YOU’RE NOT GOING TO THROW ME ON OUR DATE

ABSOLUTELY NO THROWING

HOW THE HECK IS THAT SOMETHING YOU WOULD EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING ON A DATE? WHAT KIND OF SADISTIC ABUSER ARE YOU? I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WOULD EVEN THINK ABOUT—

“What about throwing you onto a bed?” I asked.

………………

……………………………

…………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………

Seeing her reaction made me want to see how she would react if I actually did throw her onto a bed. “Come on, Window. Wait, I thought you were going to transform?”

That’s… for after we go through the portal.

I looked at the portal Vala prepared for us – the portal that would lead us right into the dark alley of one of my world’s biggest cities. A dark alley might not have sounded like the best place to begin a date, but we didn’t want to attract too much attention to us by coming out of a portal in the middle of a street where everybody could see.

One more quick look around showed that Delphi, Lavi, and Cami were having fun with the still-sleeping Clawdia trying all sorts of things to see what would finally wake her up, including drawing on her face with markers.

“Let’s get out of here before Clawdia wakes up and sees what they’ve done to her,” I said, grabbing onto Window’s side since it was the closest thing to a hand that I could hold.

The blushing color of her rectangular self was beginning to fade before I grabbed her side. Being held, for a reason other than to be thrown, stopped that blush from disappearing.