[REVAMPED] One Big Happy Family...?

The temple was made up of the one long corridor leading up to the throne, intersecting with another long corridor spanning an equal distance across. Along this second corridor, there were doors to several rooms of mostly rooms where the monks of the temple once used to sleep or pray or cook and eat.

As it turns out, trying to hide during a hide-and-seek from a goddess isn't very fun… 

Particularly if said goddess can dematerialize into a swarm of honeybees.

At the first sound of any buzzing, Akira and Kiko knew they were about to get caught. Because it meant Melissa would inevitably re-materialize, soon after, declaring something like:

"Fooooound you!"

"I caught you again~ I caught you again~"

"I got your tail!" While hiding under a bed, Akira suddenly felt her hand grasp tightly around his Squell tail!

Grr! This girl was seriously getting on his nerves...

"You know, Melissa," he said to her, grimacing hard as he tried—valiantly—to remain polite, "the first person the seeker finds is supposed to go next, right?" (And running off too fast to start counting before we could stop you!)

"Okay! Then I'll let you go next time."

At the start of the next round, everyone reconvened in the throne room.

Kiki was yawning. She looked like she was dozing off, barely keeping on her feet.

Akira then sat on the throne, to start counting down from thirty as, meanwhile, the Spring Bee Queen's "attendant" could be heard still rolling around on the floor nearby, gurgling and grunting in anguish—still suffering mightily from his magically induced hangover...

Was he...okay?

Was he just gonna stay like that all night?

Akira tiptoed carefully past him after she had finished counting down.

"Ready or not! Here I—eugh..." He didn't care to finish.

He set off along the hallway of doors, taking cursory peeks into each one as she passed.

Melissa could be anywhere, because of her magical bee bullshit. But he had a good feeling he knew where to find Kiki.

One of the rooms was different from the rest, and would require a more thorough investigation. It was being used to store all manner of items that had been gifted to the Spring Bee Queen as offerings: countless moth-eaten dresses, rusting armors and weapons, toys like rocking horses and ancient-looking handheld game consoles, exotic antiques from faraway lands—far too many thingamajigs to be kept in a single player's personal inventory. 

This storage room was a trouble to navigate in the dark, with no braziers having been lit inside them. But as such, it obviously made for the best hiding-place...

After combing through the piles of junk and hidden treasures, Akira found Kiko.

She was laying out on top of a giant stuffed toy penguin, using it as a makeshift mattress, yawning and stretching loudly as he approached.

"You look as tired as I feel," he said. "That girl is an infinite well of energy."

"Can we call it quits after this round?" Kiko asked.

"Hopefully the 'goddess' won't smite us."

Kiko then scooted to the side on the penguin and patted the empty space left beside her—beckoning for Akira to sit.

At once, he complied. And for a decent while, they simply laid there…saying nothing.

Their arms were touching as they gazed up at the ceiling, listening to the gentle stirring of the beads inside of the stuffed penguin and occasional creaks in the walls. Thankfully, no buzzing.

"Finally, some alone time," Akira shifted, turning to her. "So, about earlier…"

Kiko turned to him, and now they were closer together than they'd ever been before. Basking in each other's faces in warm breaths.

"I never would've been able to get through to the goddess on my own."

"She was acting like a child. So, I just figured we should try talking to her like one." She gave a sly grin. "It doesn't take a CEO to figure that out."

"Though, you would think someone who's lived multiple lives would be more mature..."

Kiko giggled. "Akira-sama, not everything makes complete logical sense."

"That's true," he answered softly, bringing his lips closer to hers. "Including, but by no means limited to"—he chuckled—"what I'm feeling right now…"

Her response was a sultry whisper, "Akira-sama…I'm feeling illogical as well."

From there, raw instincts took control. 

~~~~~~~~

Akira Maximilian and Kiko Amagiri Love Cultivation EXP + 8

~~~~~~~~ 

"That night on the toy penguin" would be fondly remembered by the two, for years to come: the place where their romance first fully blossomed. When it wouldn't be until an hour later that the two emerged from the storeroom, breathless, holding hands and smiling at each other warmly as they strolled into the throne room.

The Spring Bee Queen's attendant was lying flat on his black, wheezing in pain.

"Oh my God, is he dying?" Akira ran to his aid, pressing his ear close to the pig-man's gasping snout. "Can you say something? Tell me wha—"

All of a sudden, he froze. Something wasn't quite ordinary about this scene.

Because just then, through his finely attuned Squell hearing, he had heard something ominous coming from within the pig's mouth…

The unmistakable buzz of an entire swarm of insects!

"AH!" He shot back from the pig-man just as a stream of honeybees issued forth in multiple simultaneous streams from their every orifice: ears, mouth, nose, even their eyes and other—unmentionable—places, all forming together in a hovering black and yellow cloud above the throne. 

The swarm then quickly condensed to reform as Spring Bee Queen Melissa, who was seated there, floating in midair still, her arms crossed with a pouting, disappointed look.

"I waited so long in there—you're both TERRIBLE seekers!"

Akira and Kiko exchanged sheepish looks.

Then Kiko gave a nervous laugh. "Wow! Melissa-chan is really good at hiding!" she cheerfully exclaimed, while Akira was frantically trying to assist the panicking pig-man, snorting and squealing and flapping his arms around in the background. "Errm…but maybe we should have a house rule in place." She clapped her hands together with a sweet smile, beads of nervous sweat pouring down the side of her face."There'll be no more 'hiding' inside of other people's bodies, got it?"

Melissa gave a cute frown, looking as if she'd just been caught sneaking into a cookie jar. "Owkay…"

…

Over the ensuing days, Akira and Kiko remained at the village looking after the goddess.

They would play many more games together: spending many hours chasing each other through the tall fields of wheat. Playing jump rope in the village streets, with help from Melissa's attendant and Herb. Hopscotch. Pat-a-cake. All of the typical children's games Akita and Kiko could think of to try.

And as Melissa warmed to Akira and Kiko, she stopped drinking altogether. And slowly, another—much softer—side to her character was being revealed…

She would pick flowers for her "mama" and "papa," and shower them with hugs. 

"You're the best mama and papa ever," she would say, squeezing them so tight that it was impossible to resist patting her on the head.

They would eat their meals together.

They would bathe and sleep in the same bed together, with Melissa in the middle.

It was unusual; nothing like Akira ever imagined. But through all their closeness and seeing how Kiko would act so motherly toward the goddess...it brought out within him, in turn, a fervent desire to act more fatherly by scolding and instructing Melissa when she would act out of line, but always with an undercurrent of unconditional love.

In a way...they were becoming like a family. So much so that Akira's focus on his end goal was beginning to wane.

'What's happening to me? Am I becoming soft?'

One evening, just before sundown, the three were camping out by the riverbank just on the outskirts of Hogs Landing.

Kiko had just caught a bunch of fish, raising her [Fishing] skill in the process.

~~~~~~~~

Kiko Amagiri Fishing Rank: Beginner => Novice

~~~~~~~~ 

Akira was frying the fish over a fire while Melissa watched with glee, singing a song about how tasty they looked. All was happy and peaceful.

That's when Akira remembered something.

"Kiki-chan, didn't we get a bunch of EXP from killing those wolves?"

She looked at him in surprise. "And I got a bunch by Fishing! And all those times when we "—she saw Akira's stifling glare, catching herself—"did…that…other stuff." 

"That stuff grownups do at night is called [Cultivation]," Melissa chimed in slyly. (~Musical note)

Feeling exposed, Akira sheepishly shifted the subject back to its center focus: "let's check our statuses, Kiko-chan."

Between the two, however, only Kiko had leveled up:

~~~~~~~~

Name: Kiko Amagiri

Race: Kappa

Level: 2

EXP: 34/112

Class: Silt-Sunken Druid ★ ★ ★

Guilds: N/A

< Strength: 4 => 5 >

< Agility: 6 => 7 >

< Stamina: 4 => 5 >

< Willpower: 4 => 5 >

< Dexterity: 6 => 7 >

< Charisma: 1 >

< Luck: 4 >

~~~~~~~~

Stat points: 1

~~~~~~~~

Skills: 

Tide Whisper 

COST: 1 Spell Point

The caster gains the ability to communicate with marine creatures for 10 (+Level) minutes.

Limitations:

Only usable on targets that do not exceed your level.

~~~~~~~~

Watermorph [NEW!]

You can magically bend any source of water to your will.

Limitations:

The weight of water that can be controlled is based on your attribute.

~~~~~~~~

Kiko gasped. "I can control the water now?" 

Excited, she immediately threw her fishing rod aside and hurried closer to the river's edge to experiment with it.

"I don't get why she's making such a big deal about leveling," Melissa whined. Then crawled into Akira's lap, pulling their arm around her. "I've been a high-level hundreds of times, but it's just"—she scowled—"annoying! I don't ever wanna be high-level again!"

"That's strange," Akira said, wrapping his other arm around her. "Usually, in games like these it's fun to be super-powerful. It's kind of every player's goal."

Melissa suddenly looked sad. "It's not so fun at all, if you're all alone."

Akira was silent a while: he'd never seen Melissa so sad before.

He would try to proceed carefully:

"Surely you have plenty of friends, like everyone in the village who says such nice things about you."

"No, I don't." She sniffed. "They all stop being my friend when they find out who I am—what I am." Tears were rolling down her precious small face. "They only want me to do things for them!" She cried. "They never want to play, and don't really care about me at all!"

Akira shot her an annoyed glare. "How old are you, to even say such childish things? Everyone uses others towards their own ends sometimes. That's just human nature. And— take it from me"—he pointed his thumb at himself proudly—"it's usually the ones who do it the best that achieve the most success."

Melissa had a sad look, her antennas drooping. "I already have success in real life. I only came to this game to make friends."

She went on to tell Akira about her real life as an up-and-coming Pop Star Idol, which took Akira completely by surprise. And how her life had changed so drastically because of the COVID lockdown, making it so she couldn't do live shows anymore. 

"That's a relief, then," Akira said. "For a moment there I was wondering if you were actually a kid." (Making me seriously consider whether I should abort the mission!)

Melissa leaned her smooth washboard chest against his arm, smiling softly, his arm pressing in between her tiny breast-mounds.

"Silly daddy! Kids aren't allowed in this game."

"So? Since when has that ever stopped them from playing anyways?"

"The nerve gear is designed to keep children out."

"Oh." What incredible technology!

"By the way, I'm upgrading you from papa to daddy now," she whispered to him, running her smooth hands gently, soothingly along his arm. "This game is our little playground, so it's only natural us bored adults try to make the most fun out of it."

Akira subtlely wrapped an arm around her, his fingers tasting the inside of her thigh as they lurked beneath the egregiously short hem of the bee queen's silky honey-gold toga. "I'm just worried about how Kiko will take the news. She's a sweet girl, so I'd hate to see her cry."

"She'll need to learn eventually: normal relationship rules don't apply here."

"I know. And one girl alone could never satisfy me."