| Florida Kilos ~ Lana Del Rey |

I scoot closer to Niji with my chair. The wooden legs screech against the floor, garnering glares from waiters and visitors alike.

Crimson is well-decorated. The tables are set along the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that overlook the city's blinking lights. Inside, an oblong light fixture snakes around on the red and golden ceiling, illuminating the whole room. Opposite the windows is the bar counter with people sitting on high stools and behind the bartender is a grand cabinet showing off the booze collection.

"Do you want to drink tonight?" I ask Niji absentmindedly.

"Maki-san!" She rolls her eyes at me when I look back at her. "I'm eighteen."

I hide a smirk behind my hand and she rolls her eyes at me again. What a brat! What a pretty brat!

We look at the menu of ridiculously expensive items and unanimously decide to have cobb salad and sushi. We feel very eccentric ordering that. They ask for our IDs when I order a beer and the manager comes over to make me promise that I wouldn't let Niji drink.

Niji giggles when they leave and I take her hand under the table. She mellows into a blushing grin as she tightens her grasp around my fingers. "I was looking forward to this," she says.

"Me too." I flash her a grin and I think she melts a little.

"Shall we... umm... discuss things?" Niji looks behind her and I measure the gap between her seat and that of the dude sitting beside us. He's alone. I respect that but I'm too young to relate.

"Sure, we can." I adjust in my chair and rest one ankle over the other knee.

"So..." Niji plays around with her words and lets out a nervous chuckle. "Where do we start? I've never... done this before."

"I think I have a word file," I say, fishing my phone out of my pocket.

"A word file? Like the contract from Fifty Shades of Grey?"

"Oh no, no." I chuckle. "Not a contract. I don't like the idea of legally binding my partner to have sex with me whenever I want."

The man behind Niji lets out a cough. I don't know if it's a warning sign or a reaction from his coke. Not that I care.

I slide my phone toward Niji. She picks it up and scrolls down as her eyes speed read through the document.

"Okay," she says, putting it back on the table, "what now?"

"We'll go through the points one by one. We'll talk about what we prefer, what we're willing to explore, our limits and needs, and if there's something that I want to do and you don't or the reverse, we can negotiate on it. Oh! Before that..." I take my phone back and click on a white space in the document. "What would you like me to call you?"

"Huh?" She looks at me with wide eyes.

I touch her knee under the table. "For example, I like being called 'Maki-san' in bed when I'm the Dom. But you already call me that so, that's cool. What do you want me to call you? It can be Niji or anything else you want. I can call you 'pumpkin spice latte' if you want me to."

She looks outside the glass window beside her and when she looks back, she says, "I really like it when you call me baby."

"Okay." I feel my lips turn into a smirk as I enter the detail in the document.

I scroll down the word file. "Are you willing to take an STD test? I will too, obviously."

"But we've already... I mean, yeah, we should."

"Your concern is justified. We should have had taken the test before we got together but... we should get it done now that it has come up. Do you agree?"

She nods.

I enter 'yes' beside the question and proceed to the next point. "Both of us will be expected to maintain healthy eating and drinking habits, and hygiene, and see doctors and therapists as and when required. And if either of us has contracted something that can be easily transmitted, we'll let the other person know. Makes sense?"

She nods.

"We'll be setting aside time to engage in a Dominant-Submissive relationship. A time agreed upon by both of us, which can obviously change based on our schedules. We may or may not engage sexually outside of this time."

"Okay," she says, biting her tinted lower lip.

"Do you..." This is a very important question. "Do you want to be exclusive, or open to seeing other people?"

Niji meets eyes with me and holds her gaze like she's trying to gauge my thoughts. "Whatever's fine with you is fine with me."

"What do you want?" I tighten my grasp on her thigh.

"I will probably not be seeing other people but I don't want to pressure you into being exclusive. If you don't want that."

I don't want to give myself away. "Okay! Good to know."

Niji readjusts in her chair, creating a sudden distance between us, making her knee inaccessible to my hand. Unwilling to show my dislike, I place my palm on the handle of my chair and resume the work at hand.

Our sushi platter arrives on a boat-shaped plate and the waiter offers to serve but we excuse them. I move on to the next bullet point in my little word file. It's about sex toys.

"This is a comprehensive list of most toys commonly used in BDSM. For now, let's just go over the ones I have at hand. And if there's anything else on this list that you want to try, we can get them later."

We mutually agree on handcuffs, dildos, strap-ons, and G-spot and clitoris vibrators. She shakes her head to butt plugs and anal and vaginal beads. We move on to sexual acts and I tick off roleplaying, semi-public sex, orgasm denial, blindfolding, gagging, and temperature play using ice only and not fire or wax. I turn down fire.

"Now, safe words!" I say. "I've used 'grapes' and 'berries' before. Grapes for stopping completely and berries for slowing down. We can come up with new ones if you want."

"These are fine by me."

Niji starts eating her sushi and so do I. She's still... distant. Ever since I posed the exclusivity question, she has refused to meet eyes with me but has continued to talk about BDSM. It gives me this weird, stinky feeling of compression in my chest that I can't remember ever feeling before. So I put my phone aside and change the topic of discussion.

"Enough about this," I say, picking up a sushi roll with my chopsticks and dipping it in soy sauce. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure," she says with a napkin over her mouth. What a lady!

"How was your day?" I ask something so casual, that it surprises her.

"Not bad," she still chooses to answer with a somber tone. "I'm still waiting for an update on the dance club's website. Other than that, pretty normal. What about you?"

"I was on campus in the morning," I tell her. "I had to finish this pottery assignment for a class. It kept me in the studio for the whole day. But I think it turned out fine."

"Can I see a picture?" She asks and I pick up my phone again.

"It's an imitation of the wisteria tea-leaf jar by Nonomura Ninsei." I slide my phone toward her. "But my wisteria is more purple."

Niji examines the phone's screen for a second before murmuring, "this is gorgeous. The shape is so... perfect. You have very skillful hands, Maki-san."

"I'm sure you know quite a lot about my hands," I whisper, leaning a little toward her but she leans away. This is... not good.

She hands me back my phone and resumes her eating. Our cobb salad appears too. The quantity doesn't match the price but we were kinda expecting this.

"You'll have to finish that," Niji tells me. "I'm already pretty full."

Huh? "You have had three sushi rolls. And these are cut so thin too. How can you be full, Niji?" I sigh. "Are you not eating because you're mad at me?"

She giggles. It's not her usual bright kind of giggle. "Why would I be mad at you, Maki-san? These are cut small but they are stuffed. And quite filling."

We continue eating in silence until Niji gets a call from her mother. She doesn't lie this time. She explains who she is with and it sounds like there already has been a conversation about me. I wonder how she introduced me.

"No, okasan, they don't let eighteen-year-olds drink in public places. I'm just having sushi with Maki-san... Well, the plate's almost empty but sure, I'll send you a picture... I'm wearing the denim skirt and the pink top with gloves... I'm eating with chopsticks and even if it gets dirty, I'll wash it... Yes, okasan, I'll call when I'm back. Bye."

She sighs when she hangs up. "Sorry about that. My mom can be a little... interrogative."

"What about your father?" I ask, finishing up a mouthful of bacon and tomatoes. "Is he friendly?"

"Umm..." She looks away, picking at a piece of cheese. "I guess. He had to compensate somehow for being absent during my entire childhood. So yeah, he offers me drinks at parties. If... if that's what you wanna call friendly."

Niji breaks the small chunk of cheese in two and puts one in her mouth. It makes me think back on every other time I've seen her eat. The first morning, she ate heartily. That evening, she had cookies for dinner. I mean, I didn't watch her eat but I hope she had at least the cookies. Then at the party, she only had a slice of cake that I claimed almost half of.

"What did you have for lunch today, Niji?" I ask, forgetting all about her father.

"Some fruits," she replies hesitantly.

"And for breakfast?"

"Bread and milk."

"How many slices of bread? How much milk?"

She lets out another cold giggle. "Wow! It's like I don't have to miss my Mom at all."

"Niji!" I realize how serious I sound at the moment and calm down. "You can't not eat. How will you continue dancing if you're not giving yourself the sustenance it takes to put up a performance?"

"Maki-san! I know what I'm doing, okay? This is just to get in some professionally convenient shape. People won't pay to watch a fat ballerina."

My heart breaks. I shake off any previous animosity and take her hand. "Niji, you're so beautiful and you're very talented. And when you dance, it shows that you love and enjoy performing. Baby, will you please look at me?"

She looks up and her eyes are watery. "If I'm so talented, why hasn't Akane sensei invited me to join the club?"

"Well, they haven't invited anyone yet, have they?"

She sniffles and shakes her head.

"Why don't we check the website now?" I ask. "But you'll have to promise me that this will be the last time for today. If they haven't updated it at 8 o'clock, chances are they wouldn't do that before tomorrow morning. Right?"

She nods and hands me her phone. "You check."

I give her shoulder a gentle squeeze and take her phone. The dance club's website is one of twenty-four tabs open on her browser. I quietly refresh the page and click on the "New Admissions" link. The following page has two new links - an application form and another titled "Invited Students".

I keep a straight face as I click on the second link.

"Greetings, dance enthusiasts!

Before we get lost in the academic quicksand of the semester, we will be welcoming new dancers to our club as is a ritual every year. We have selected ten dancers and dance groups who have struck us with awe during the Freshers' ceremony to start their journey with us next week. Their names are listed below and they are requested to join us at Auditorium 1 in the Katsushika Block on Monday, at 7:00 PM. Others interested can apply through the application form and an audition will be held in the coming weeks to evaluate them.

Cheers,
Akane Stepanov,
President, Dance Club, Gakuganji University"

The list of names follows this unnecessarily long message. I scroll through it. I see no familiar name on it until number nine. Beside the digit, it says -

"Gushiken Niji | Genetics Dept. | Ballet | Supervisor: Akane Stepanov"

I let a small smile appear on my lips because I know Niji is looking at me.

"Are you reading manga or something?" She asks, cracking her knuckles. "What's taking you so long, Maki-san?"

I take her hand and place her phone in it. "You see for yourself."

She frowns, scrolling up and down on the page even though I had zoomed specifically on her name. Her face brightens as she realizes and she stands up with a squeal. A warm, positive squeal. Her chair hits the one behind her, making the single guy turn toward us.

"Sorry." I pull Niji's chair back toward the table and urge her to sit down. "See! Talented people recognize talented people."

Her eyes are watery again but she also has a smile on her face. It relieves me.

I decide to finish the cobb salad and beer and ask them to pack up the sushi. They charge an extra 300 Yen for the packaging and I grumble about it throughout the elevator ride.

"Are you still mad at me?" I ask Niji as we reach my bike. We're holding hands but I can still feel the distance in the air.

"What will I be mad about?" She mumbles, leaning against the Vulcan's seat. She places her helmet beside her and looks off in the distance. Her eyeliner is a bit messy now, the wing on one eye broken and dull. But she's still so gorgeous, it's hard to take my eyes off her.

How wonderful would it be to be a thread in her skirt, stretched to capacity by the ample curve of her hips!

"Baby," I whisper, touching her arm. "If we want this to work, we'll have to be honest with each other."

"Maybe this won't work," she says and brushes my hand off.

"Then who will I make this work with?" I touch her chin with the tip of my fingers and turn her face toward me.

"One of your other girlfriends maybe." Bingo!

I laugh out. "Baby, I never said I will get other girlfriends."

"And you didn't say you wouldn't."

She's complaining like a child and I realize she is a child. Just turned eighteen, getting into college, and facing the real world. She had an overprotective mother, an absentee father, and was bullied. I can only assume the impact all that must have had on her psyche.

"So you do want us to be exclusive?" I ask, teasing her earlobe.

"Not if you don't want to."

"Baby! Yes or no? Do you want us to be exclusive with each other? Regardless of what I want."

"Yes," she tells me, looking me in the eye.

"Okay. That's what I want too." I give myself away.

I drag my finger from her ear to her neck, where I had left a hickey the other night. She has tried covering it up with concealer but it's still pretty visible. It's red and round, with distinct marks of my teeth.

I rub my thumb over it and she hisses. "It hurts?" I ask her.

"Only a little," she whispers, looking away.

"Good. I'll give you some more the next time you spend the night at my place."

"In less visible areas please." Niji pulls at the hem of my shirt.

"That depends on me," I whisper to her. "I'm the Dom, remember?"

Maki is so romantic, it's painful to watch her be so oblivious to it. What do you think about the thoughts inside her head and how she chooses to show herself in front of this girl she's ridiculously infatuated with?

A/n: If you liked this chapter, please consider leaving a vote and commenting about what you liked or what you'd like to see in the next chapters.