The Ogre 16 (Patreon)

It was Sunday, but despite every inclination I had to sleep in, I was up early cleaning the house. Having Holly over really distracted me from my chores, which mean the house was falling into disarray. I figured I could try and get some maintenance in before Holly woke up.

However, even as I dusted the counters and mopped the floors, all I could think about was the roller-coaster ride of the last few days. Holly had gotten closer to me… well… as much as she can anyone, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I wonder if this is what Stockholm Syndrome feels like.

I let my mind wander about all of Holly’s complexities as I refilled the mop bucket, and accidentally let it overflow. “Oh crap!” I said as I struggled to lift it out of the wash basin.

“You’re such a wuss” I hear from over me, as I saw Holly’s hands come from behind and pick it up like it was nothing.

She was dressed casually, denim shorts, a sleeveless sweatshirt, something I might imagine her wearing if she was going to clean up the house.

“After all the training we did, you should be able to lift this easily! We are going to have to double down on weights.”

I laughed. “Well the truth is, a couple weeks ago I probably couldn’t have lifted it at all, you know at it’s proper fill rate…”

Holly gave me a strange look “Only you would care about the ‘proper fill rate’ of a mop bucket, but either way you are welcome. So is it cleaning day? Let me help.”

“Oh no,” I said. “You are my guest, I couldn’t as you to-”

“I INSIST!” she said, with that signature tone that said she wouldn’t be taking no for an answer. “I’m not a freeloader, and besides, four arms makes this easy. How do you think I keep the gym clean.”

Just as Holly said, the two of us working together were able to get it done much faster than usual, barely an hour or so. At the end, she emptied the garbage and recycling while I began preparing brunch.

“Smells good,” Holly said as she came in from her final dumping run. “I’m starving.”

“Hope you like it,” I said with a goofy grin. “I made my specialty. French toast.” I made extra special care to plate the French Toast as daintily as possible, with a dollop of cream and perfectly arranged fruit.

… Holly gobbled it down like a ravenous wolf.

“You know, worm, if there’s ANYTHING I like about you it’s your cooking skills. I could eat this every day.” Holly said with a mouth full of food.

“Hah, thanks. I do my best,” I said collecting the plates. “Oh and you know what? The new episode of ‘Jibun no gemu no samurai ni narimashita!’ releases this afternoon. Wanna watch?”

“Sounds good to me!” Holly said in a far more effusive manner than I originally thought she would. “I… I mean the show is neat but… the villains are pretty dumb… I mean who cares, let’s watch!

The afternoon went as planned. We study, practiced, I got beat up as usual. As the sun set I prepared us some sandwiches and we got ready to turn on the show. Honestly, it was pretty good, albeit a bit formulaic. It was one of those episodes where the protagonist had to make use of all her skill to survive the villain. Holly was very into it.

“This was a good one,” Holly said reclining on the couch. “The villain wasn’t dumb, and I’m even starting to like Ayu. She reminds me of you.”

“What?” I laughed. “But she’s a mutant with four arms like you?”

“Yeah, but she’s a character who tries very hard to not be weak. She is clumsy and the odds are stacked against her, but she fights against the odds and doesn’t abandon her dreams.”

“Wow, thanks. I uh… didn’t know you thought so highly of me.” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “But you know, you and I have something in common too. We are both judged by who we are and how we look and people are constantly making assumptions about us.”

“Well the difference between you and me is I embrace the role people put me in,” Holly said. “I mean, remember when we first talked and you were trying to play white knight and teach me how to be super nice and open. What did you get that from an anime too?”

“Hah, yeah I remember the terror. Maybe I judged you too quick too. But in the end I probably learned more from you than you learned from me. Honestly, I admire you. You are like, the strongest most amazing girl I ever met and-”

“Remember what I said about excess flattery, worm?” she said, giving me a ‘shut up’ look.

I gulped hard. I can’t believe I came so close to confessing to her. I mean… My feelings were real but she was still so out of my league. I finished cleaning and we prepared for bed. School was coming up fast tomorrow and Holly was ready to return to her house.

“Hope you don’t mind if I packed my back while you were doing the dishes,” Holly said as the night wound down.

“No problem. There are some things I can take care of with my noodle arms,” I said, posing with the worst flex imaginable.

“Hey Ty… thank you. Really. You are a really good friend,” she said as she left to ready the last of her things.

I finished washing the dishes and cleaning up and walked past Holly’s room, which would soon be my room once more. I noticed the light was on, but I knew better to disturb her. I just went straight to my dad’s room to get some sleep. I put on my pajamas, threw myself in bed, and turned off the light. I stared up at the ceiling thinking about how truly weird but wonderful this weekend was.

And just before I was about to fall asleep, the door swung open.

Holly came into the room, completely naked. Before I knew it, she was on the bed, crouched over me.

“Tell me”, she said to me, “Tell me what you said the other day, when we were in your room.”

I looked at her in complete astonishment “don't stop, please be gentle”.

Holly simply smiled with a knowing grin and lowered her lips to mine.