Volume 8 - Gratitude, Chapter 50 - On The Tip Of Everyone's Tongue

"Please, Mara, just let me talk. Hear me out to the end, okay?" Tsuen said, her voice tired and low.

"Okay," Mara said with a firm nod of her head. She settled down onto the carpeted floor of Tsuen's room, tucking all her legs under herself, then looked up at Tsuen expectantly. Nervously.

"I still love you, Mara. But I'm afraid we're on a really bad path right now. I can't take any more of this, and I don't want to ruin our friendship." Tsuen took a long, slow breath. "We need to take a break. Go back to just being friends for a while, for as long as it takes."

Tears gathered at the corners of Mara's six eyes. "As long as it takes for what?" she whispered.

"For me to forgive you, to forget all the fights we had. For me to learn to accept the way you are, which I don't think will ever change. I don't think I want you to change."

Mara practically withered as she heard that, leaning forward until she was laying on her stomach, hiding her face with her arms. But she wasn't all that surprised. She'd seen this coming. It had been four days since they returned from vacation, and every attempt at a conversation ended with someone upset.

"What does that mean?" Mara mumbled into the carpet, which was growing wet with tears. "To take a break, that is?"

Tsuen shrugged and the motion shook a single tear free from the corner of her eye. There would have been more tears, but she'd cried them all out over the previous days. She'd cried during their arguments, and again alone in her room every night. She was too emotionally exhausted, too numb to the sadness to cry anymore.

"I guess we break up, just not for good. We can both pursue other relationships. If and when we get back together, we don't hold anything that happened on break against each other."

Mara pushed herself up from the floor. She looked up at Tsuen, face red and wet with tears. "Alright. If this is what you want, I'll do it." Mara sprung to her feet, then skittered from the bedroom. At the door she turned back and added, "But I don't have to like it, Tsuen. I don't have to like it." Fresh tears ran down her face as she turned and fled down the hallway.

A warm drop fell onto Tsuen's chest, followed by another and another. "Huh, I guess I did still have tears left…" she whispered to herself, then she covered her face in her hands.

"Hey, Yuisu," Haru whispered, "do you know what's up with Mara and Tsuen?" She had a wing wrapped around Yuisu's shoulders as they snuggled together on the couch.

Yuisu looked around the living room, making sure no one was within earshot. "I'm not entirely sure," she whispered back, "but I think they broke up. They stopped going running together, and Mara's been staying in her room a lot more."

Before she could say anything else, Mara's bedroom door opened and the little arachne stepped out. She was wearing a loose t-shirt and a different colored sock on every leg. She shuffled slowly into the living room and looked up at Haru and Yuisu with a flat expression.

"Hey."

"Hi, Mara," Yuisu responded. Haru nodded in greeting as well.

"I was about to ask this on reddit but I remembered I have an expert here in the house. Got any yuri manga you'd recommend?"

Yuisu smiled. "Of course! I've got some really good series for beginners, with some great romance and—"

Mara cut her off. "No romance though. Got any that, uh, cut to the chase?"

Yuisu blushed a little. She cleared her throat, then said, "Uh, yeah. I have some of those."

Yuisu turned to Haru and said, "I'll go help her with this. Seeya in a bit." Then she slipped out from under Haru's fluffy wing and walked with Mara to Yuisu and Haru's bedroom, with it's veritable library of manga.

As Yuisu closed the door behind them, she said, "Do you want tame stuff? Or explicit? I don't normally share the porn-level stuff, so this is kind of awkward."

Mara had climbed up on the half-bed-half-nest that Yuisu and Haru shared. Mara smiled and said, "It doesn't have to be awkward. You and I are both pretty pervy. We can share that."

"Uh huh," Yuisu replied, ignoring the undertones in Mara's speech. "So I assume you do want the explicit stuff…?"

"Yeah, I want the explicit stuff," Mara said intently.

As Yuisu bent over to dig into the cardboard box labeled 'H', Mara slipped off her panties and hung them over her left pedipalp. Then she tugged her baggy shirt down so it covered her hips but revealed her miniscule cleavage, and even the edge of a nipple.

Yuisu stood up with a doujin comic in each hand. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but please don't get these all, uh, wet," Yuisu said as she turned around. Then she saw Mara and froze with her mouth open.

The scrawny spider sat on the corner of the bed, spinning her blue and white striped panties around on one palp and blinking flirtatiously with six shiny black eyes. Her magenta hair was fully down for once, cascading over her shoulders, but it didn't cover her chest. Perky nipples pushed against the thin fabric of her t-shirt and moved up and down with her nervous breathing.

"What." Yuisu blinked a few times. "What are you doing, Mara?"

"I thought we could spend some time together, Yuri-su," Mara cooed.

Yuisu swallowed hard. Despite the immense awkwardness of the situation, she actually was getting a little aroused. "Uh, you do know I'm in a relationship with Haru, right?"

"That didn't stop you from having that threesome with Quess," Mara countered.

She knows about that? Shit, Yuisu thought as she scrambled to think of something to say. She settled on shifting the blame. "That was Haru's idea, and we both agreed on it. This"—she waved an unsteady hand towards Mara's little striptease—"is different."

"So I'll go ask Haru to join. I always did like those great boobs of hers."

This is getting out of hand. I need to stop this. In a stern, no-nonsense voice, Yuisu said, "No, Mara. This isn't the right way to deal with your breakup. Just take these manga and go. We can talk more in the morning."

"Yes, Doctor Nakahara," Mara said in a mocking voice as she pulled her panties back on. She hopped off the bed and stepped up to Yuisu to grab the manga. "The offer still stands, Yuri-su, with or without Haru," she whispered, then she flung the door open and skittered away.

Yuisu hung her head and mumbled, "What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

Mara slept through breakfast, giving Yuisu a good chance to talk to Tsuen. "How are you, Tsuen?" Yuisu asked as she shuttled another couple plates of freshly-prepared food to the table.

Haru, Iormu and Quess all listened carefully for her response while trying not to look too interested.

"I'm alright, actually. I've been talking to Korbin, and he's offered me a part-time job as a junior trainer at Sports Club Kobold."

Quess leaned forward and smiled heartily. "Oh, that's wonderful, Tsuen!"

Tsuen didn't seem as excited. "Uh-huh. Should fill my free time pretty well."

Yuisu sat down at the table but didn't start in on her meal. She turned to Tsuen and said, "'Fill free time'? It's way more than that. Don't you want to be a personal trainer for a living? This is a major step towards your dream, Tsuen."

"Sure," she said flatly, then she grabbed her remaining toast and stood up. "I've got new-hire orientation today, so I've got to go." With that, she darted out of the kitchen toward the front door.

When the sound of the door closing reached the kitchen, the four women exchanged glances. It was obvious that the same topic was on all their minds.

Quess started, "So… what's going on with them? Her and Mara, I mean?"

Yuisu opened her mouth to respond, but Iormu was faster. "I asked Tsuen about it yesterday. She wouldn't say much, but from what I can piece together, they're on a break, not a permanent breakup."

Quess's yellow-tipped tendril bobbed as the pondered. "Hmm, I wonder if that's why Tsuen's been acting odd around me?"

Iormu raised an eyebrow. "What would them being on break have to do with you?"

Quess explained, "I had a rocky start with Tsuen, getting too grabby with her when I first moved in. Later, Tsuen took a strong liking to me whenever I was in my tiny form, and that made Mara really jealous."

Yuisu and Haru nodded knowingly. Unlike Iormu, they'd been around for that little adventure.

Quess continued, "I wonder if Tsuen is deciding whether to pursue something with me. Maybe for herself, or maybe to make Mara jealous."

Iormu set her fork on her plate and leaned back against her coiled body. "And if she did pursue something? What would you do, Quess?"

"I don't want to be a revenge fling, especially not between my friends. And I've got my eye on someone else anyway." Quess kept her gaze on Iormu as she delivered that final line, hoping Iormu would get the hint.

Quess didn't need to be so blunt. Iormu had the keen eyes and observational awareness of a detective, after all. Iormu looked from the lovely lovestruck slime to Haru and Yuisu, who were grinning and nodding in unison.

Iormu thought back to her interactions with Quess, She really seems to care for me. She helped me out of that awful rut is was in about Antonio and Erin… "I'm feeling a little chilly in here, so I'm going to head back to the cabin," Iormu said. As she started to unravel and head for the back door, she added, "Want to hang out there with me, Quess?"

"Absolutely." Quess nodded excitedly and bounced along behind Iormu.

Back at the table, Haru let out a slight scoff and said, "When one door closes, another opens, right?"

"I don't think that phrase works when the door opened for a different person, Haru."

Haru shrugged. "Well, Mara and Tsuen have some new opportunities too."

Yuisu took a deep breath. "Speaking of Mara, I need to fill you in on something…"