AnimeCon Harem 13: Persistent Boyfriend (Patreon)

   “I… I don’t know that I can just not worry about it,” Brian admitted, letting out a slow breath. “But, you have good points. I think. A lot here for me to uh, consider and unpack, I guess.”

   “Yeah,” Kelly shrugged.

   “Otherwise, though—what’s wrong?” Brian asked, giving Kelly an evaluating look. “If you want to talk about it, I mean. If not, just—”

   “Why do you guys gotta talk about everything?” Kelly griped, gently ribbing him with her elbow so that he’d know she wasn’t being too serious. “You all just love to hear the sound of your own voices, or what?”

   “No, no,” Brian laughed. “Just trying to—understand. Lot of a relationship’s all about communication, you know? Understanding each other. Or, it should be.”

   “Yeah, how’d that work out for you and Chloe?” Kelly rebuked in a dry voice.

   “It, well, it didn’t,” Brian shrugged. “If you don’t want to talk about it, I can just drop it.”

   “I…” Kelly made a sour face. “I’m… sorry. I’m being bitchy. I knew this was going to happen, because, well—I’m a bitch.”

   “You’re not a bitch,” Brian shook his head.

   “Oh? You need me to prove it to you?” Kelly shot back, arching an eyebrow. She wasn’t even sure if she was teasing or not. “Trust me. I can be a heinous bitch.”

   “Okay,” Brian said. “It’s fine if you are—I just wish I knew why, like I wish I knew what was actually bothering you, so that I could do something about it. I can make guesses, sure, and that’s… well it’s kinda like a gamble to ever just assume I know what’s wrong. But, it’s like—where I am right now, where we are right now, I can either keep pushing in and maybe make things better, maybe make things worse. Or, I can leave it be and just give you distance, hope things get better on their own. Which seems naive, yeah, or like wishful thinking, but it’s the proactive approach versus the passive approach. And, sometimes a person does just need some space. Space but not distance, if that makes sense?”

   “You’ve got it all figured out, huh?” Kelly wasn’t sure if her tone was mocking or not. She didn’t know how to react to what he was saying, and what’s worse—she didn’t know what to do with his honesty, here.

   “Maybe,” Brian shrugged again. “Just, uh, articulating some things into words that I’ve had way too much time to think about for the past year or so.”

   “So, you guys tryin’ to talk about everything all the time—it’s some kinda therapy,” Kelly prodded. “It’s more for yourselves than it is whoever you’re actually ‘talking’ to.”

   “So, you deflecting this again and again—it’s not really like you,” Brian argued. “You don’t seem like the kind of person who’d be afraid to tell me to fuck off. Right? Do I just keep making stabs at this until you tell me to fuck off? Because if so—tell me to fuck off.”

   Anger and embarrassment seemed to rush to her head, and Kelly almost did exactly that. Her mouth opened to tell him to fuck off, and then after a moment she closed it again. She wasn’t going to let him tell her what to do— he was goading her into saying that. Or, maybe he was giving her an easy way out of this, because he really wasn’t all that interested in her and didn’t really want to take her back to live with him. After all, he already had Emily, and Stephanie. Things were all peachy between them, did he really even need her? Revolving red pinpricks of starlight seemed to turn far above the petty pointless problems and sap the heat from some of her reflexive anger, leaving only the fear and frustration to fight it out.

   Or, Kelly grit her teeth. Or, he’s just trying to help. I WAS deflecting, because it IS bothering me, but also, I DON’T want him to fuck off. Not really. I just—I don’t want to talk about it, either. I don’t want to get into the bullshit. I want… I don’t know what I want. I want Steph to wave her magic wand at this and just make these problems go away. But also, after today I’m not gonna be able to keep using her as this crutch, and so—and so—

   “Sorry,” Brian apologized, slightly hanging his head.

   What, Kelly stared at him, utterly bewildered. The fuck are YOU sorry for? If this is you reverting back to being the fucking spineless Chloe doormat—

   “I’m not trying to be pushy,” Brian sighed. “But, I’m also—there’s this part of me that can’t let things between us ever get to like how they were with me and Chloe. Tense silence was, uh, it kinda got to be the norm there, because I stopped being willing to even try to fight her on anything. She needed to be right about whatever we were arguing about, whether or not she actually was. She needed me to be wrong about whatever it was, or to concede, to—just shut up and let it go. I don’t want to go through that again, and honestly, I can’t.”

   “I’m not Chloe,” Kelly said.

   “You’re not Chloe,” Brian agreed. “But, you are this total roller coaster.”

   “Excuse me?” Kelly’s eyebrows shot up.

   “We’ve got all these ups and downs between us,” Brian explained with an uneasy smile. “Sometimes it’s like we’re really close, so close that your tongue’s in my mouth searching my tonsils, and then sometimes it’s like you’re trying to be this total stranger. Feels really weird, and whatever it is, it’s really hard to pin down. I mean, ‘cept when I’m actually pinning you down.”

   Despite herself, Kelly felt the warmth of starfire spreading through her. Not because she was suddenly getting turned on—well, not entirely—but because Brian had changed tacks and was trying to open her up in a different way. The dash of levity to this approach took the awkward edges off a stiff conversation. In her mind, Brian got exasperated with his stick-in-the-mud serious talk angle and cast it aside, because he knew it wasn’t getting through to her.

   The seemingly abrupt change bore a lot of consideration—because while she did know Brian had these different facets, these ones weren’t normally pointed her way. Teasing was reserved for Emily, because they were familiar enough with each other to do that. He normally saved the flirting for Stephanie, because she was just so damned receptive to it. Kelly was so used to facing stiff and defensive Brian that she really HAD been bracing herself for either strained silence or a fight.

   “Uhhh,” Kelly didn’t realize how speechless she was until she opened her mouth to retort and words didn’t come out.

   “Tell me to fuck off if you want me to fuck off,” Brian said again. “Otherwise—Kelly, I’m your boyfriend, it’s my job to make you feel better. Even when you don’t tell me what’s wrong. It’s all down there in the fine print somewhere.”

   “Cute,” Kelly gave him a half-sneer, because her full sneer seemed to be out of service—too much smile was showing through. “So then, what—it’s supposed to be my job to always make you feel better?”

   “Yeah,” Brian nodded, taking her hand. “That’s pretty much it, and you’ve been nailing it. All weekend long, honestly. Like, maybe you are a bitch sometimes—and it’s exactly what we needed there, with Chloe. You standing up for me, there? I don’t think I can explain how much I needed that. Needed you.”

   “That was—” Kelly denied, giving her hand a weak tug but not pulling hard enough to free herself. “I mean, Steph did more than me. She’s the one who finally stepped up to fucking knock Chloe’s head off.”

   “I… maybe needed that too,” Brian’s smile turned sheepish. “But, you talking her down? Or like, pulling apart everything she said? We needed that, I needed that, and you’re the only one who could do it right there. And, you did. You stood up for me. But, it’s more than that.”

   “Or you’re reading too much into things,” Kelly felt like she had to reach farther and farther to find any argument at all.

   “Am I?” Brian shook his head. “You were pushing me and Steph together all weekend long. Going way out of your way to try to make things happen.”

   “For selfish reasons,” Kelly said.

   “Selfish? If it was selfish, you would’ve left Stephanie out of it and just tried to hook up with me,” Brian countered.

   “Nah, I really like Steph,” Kelly grinned. “Coulda left you out of it and just hooked up with her.”

   “But, you didn’t,” Brian pointed out.

   “Yeah, ‘cause I’m selfish,” Kelly felt her smile return completely. “I wanted it all.”

   “And now, you have it all,” Brian let go of her hand, but only to reach around behind her and rest his hand on her opposite hip. “Even Emily, you got a free Emily thrown in. Complimentary blabbermouth Latina.”

   “Brian—how do you go from being this lame square to being pretty fuckable in just a few sentences?” Kelly asked.

   “Shit, I was just trying to ask you the same thing,” Brian chuckled. “Like I was saying, you’re this up and down rollercoaster. It’s a wild ride, but sometimes you’re this total lame square—whenever anyone starts to get this tiny bit serious with anything, or want to talk, or—”

   “You’re giving me like, PTSD flashbacks to the talk I just had with Emily,” Kelly rolled her eyes. “About how I’m lame when I’m ‘trying to be cool,’ and that only being lame is the real cool, or—fuck, some stupid bullshit like that.”

   “I mean sure, Emily takes being lame way too far sometimes,” Brian gave Kelly’s ass an appreciative squeeze. “You’ve gotta lower yourself to this juvenile mindset to be on her level and talk with her. But then, with you—it’s like if I’m not actively hitting on you or fucking fondling you, you won’t relax, open up and be real with me. So—what do I have to do to get you to tell me what’s really bothering you?”

   “I’m... open to suggestions?” Kelly retorted.

   “Alright then, turn around—or, here, walk in front of me,” Brian said, taking Kelly by the shoulders and repositioning her. “I’m lucky I already know your weakness.”

   Kelly was ready to admit that her real weakness was when he took charge and manhandled her a bit like that, but then—she felt both of his hands work in between her shoulders and neck to physically wring out tension she didn’t even know she had.

   “Mm—mm—mmmohhh my God,” Kelly breathed in and out. “Aaaahhh-Ahhhhhh…”

   Stephanie was right, Kelly thought as she let out another small moan of bliss. This IS maybe gonna work out. I WAS building up this Brian in my head that wasn’t gonna be funny or flexible or fucking AMAZING with his hands like this. He’s, he’s like—he’s sweet on me. I still want to push all of his buttons, but… in a very different way than I expected. This can maybe work out. This can maybe work out pretty fucking great, actually.

   “Brioche, or sourdough?” Kelly blurted out. “You said last night you make french toast—what kind of bread do you use?”

   “Pffftt—” Brian started to laugh.

   “I’m being serious!” Kelly let out a small whine. “No, don’t stop. Yeah, keep doing that, right there. Riiight there. I mean like, I have my own recipe for some kickass french toast. I’ve gotta make sure yours measures up.”

   “I’m not against trying brioche, but honestly I either go with French bread for that perfect stiffness, or I let the Italian bread I use for making up my work sandwiches go a tiny bit stale for good french toast. I do like Italian bread because it’s so much wider, but then on the other hand you get much thicker slices cutting french bread yourself, and I do like that. Hah ha.”

   “So, why are you still laughing?!” Kelly teased. “French toast is fucking serious business.”

   “No, it’s like—” Brian paused for a moment, until Kelly’s growl spurred him to resume the massage. “Like in hentai, when the girl gets all turned on, she starts to talk all dirty out of nowhere, it’s like selective tourettes or something. Blast your spooge in my slutty fuck-hole, I’m cumming! But, here you’ve got the reverse—I’ve gotta get you all hot and bothered to talk like a normal girlfriend to me.”

   “Oh, fuck off,” Kelly laughed, completely unaware that when she did finally tell him to fuck off, she no longer meant it at all.

   The persistent press of his fingertips upon her shoulders seemed to unravel every knot, seemed to take that tightening ball of problems that Stephanie had been so frustrated with and just start undoing everything. Brilliant ferrous red was coursing through her all over again, the heat of starlight bringing with it the radiation flush of arousal that had her entire body reacting to Brian’s touch.

   She’d been muddled before with Emily, it had been great but also weird, because it was as if her own desire had been steeping inside Emily’s different, unique kind of horny.

   Like making tea, or something, and she was the water. Maybe not tea, I dunno. We were—mmMMm—we were, uh, mixed up and um, uMMm, influencing each other. It was weird. Not BAD weird, but… she skews way further over on the kinky side of things. She like, can’t even do just straightforward sex, she’s gotta— MmMMMmmmMmm—gotta, um, gotta dance around the issue. I just want… C’mon, I just want FUCKED. I just want...

   “Brian…” Kelly breathed, clapping her hands overtop his to stop him and then slowly turning around to face him.

   They had been walking along one of the aisles between booths, and as Kelly’s lustful gaze stopped Brian in his tracks several of the people who’d been walking behind them were forced to skirt around them. Unable to control her breathing, Kelly stepped in close to him, placed her hands upon him. Savored the simple fact that he was here and that she could take advantage of him if she needed to. Did she need to? Right here, at the convention, in this giant room full of people shopping for their weeaboo wares? Her eyes danced up and down him, finding everything she saw very much to her liking.

   “Brian, can we do it?” Kelly asked. “I want to fuck. You said it was your job to make me feel better.”

   “I… did say that,” Brian seemed torn between incredulity and amazement. “You know what? I’ll do anything you want, so long as you tell me what’s wrong.”

   “Right here?” Kelly teased, gesturing around to encompass the area they’d stopped in, between a table covered with long boxes of DVDs and a booth that consisted of towering shelving racks jammed with boxed anime figurines.

   “Uhhh,” Brian gave her a weak smile, seemingly unable to gauge how serious she was being. “Maybe? Tell me what’s wrong, and I’ll do my best.”

   “Do you promise?” Kelly drew out her words in a provocative whisper, increasingly excited by how receptive he was being.

   He’s more into it than I thought—how far can I push him on this? Kelly wondered, a twinkling starfield canvassing her mind with tiny red pinpricks of light. He won’t just fuck me out here in the open.

   “I promise,” Brian said, and his eyes turned serious in a way that sent a shiver of thrill through her.

   Normally when his eyes went all serious, Brian was trying to be boring and responsible. But, when he used that look on her promising to be naughty with her, to step way, way out of his apparent comfort zone? It felt like he would actually do it, and even seriously imagining it made her wet. It made her want to squirm, it made her need to bite her lip, she suddenly had movement filling up her body that she desperately needed to work out in a physical way. Fuuuuck why am I like this?!

   “So, what’s wrong?” Brian asked, settling his hands on her sides and pulling her a little closer.

   The moment weighed on her with terrible gravity, and it was heartbreaking because she wasn’t going to lie to him—Brian did deserve the truth. The truth was plummeting down at her, and now her answer was going to have her careening off way away from all of them and out of their lives. She hated it, she hated this—but she couldn’t change who she was, and maybe it was past time to quit playing around, and own up to that.

   “Me,” Kelly gleefully revealed. “I am. I’m really fucked up.”

   “Kelly?” Brian’s look of concern only made her hotter.

   “I’m not alright, ‘cause I know I’m gonna fuck all of this up,” Kelly whispered in a husky voice, leaning in so close that they were almost kissing. “I always do, I always have, annnd—I didn’t want to be the one to ruin this for all you guys. I don’t. But, things just aren’t gonna work out. I tried telling Emily, tried telling Steph. You probably already know. Don’t you? You know I’m not gonna be able to play nice, that I won’t be able to keep this up.

   “So,” Kelly grinned up at him. “Let’s fuck, one last time—we’ll tell the others whatever. You can drop me and my stuff off somewhere downtown, I still know some people. And, let’s, let’s just forget about this whole weird fucking episode? That’s really the only way all this can go down, I just, I’ve been dragging my feet on it. Mostly because of Steph. But, you know what? I don’t want to hurt all of you, I don’t want to hurt her, I refuse to, to let me happen to her, to have me be the one to—”

   “Kelly, stop,” Brian cut her off. “The hell are you even talking about?”

   Before she could repeat herself, Brian had pulled her in close and cradled her head in against his neck.

   “Brian—I’m serious. I’m being serious.”

   “You’re being stupid,” Brian murmured, rubbing his free hand across her back as if to comfort someone who was crying. “Where’d all this come from?”

   “Brian, stop—I’m being serious,” Kelly tried to pull away. “And stop, I’m not fucking crying.”

   “Kelly, you are crying,” Brian said, not letting go of her. “You started right the second I asked what was wrong.”

   “No, I’m not,” Kelly denied, feeling her throat hitch. Wait, what the fuck?

   She dabbed at her eyes to prove conclusively to him that she wasn’t, and then stared at the wet glistening on her fingertips in disbelief. Another small sob slipped out, and she realized her cheeks felt wet and that it was a little harder to see him. But, so what? She wasn’t crying, because she didn’t cry. Anger, confusion, and bewilderment rippled through her at the way her own body was trying to embarrass her. It didn’t matter, it wasn’t going to work.

   “I’m not crying,” Kelly insisted, and as if to spite her, Brian’s face distorted and became impossible to make out through the rebellious tears bent on proving her wrong. “Stop it. Let go.”

   “No, fuck off,” Brian refused, squeezing her tight. “We’re not bailing on you just because you might hurt us. So what if you even do hurt us? That’s just fucking life, hurting each other happens and yeah, sometimes it sucks. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna give up on you, or this. Alright? Commitment’s not just about the easy times, it’s not just being together when things are nice, and then falling apart the second things get rough. Kelly—I’m your boyfriend, and if you’re breaking up with me on day one, you better give me a way fucking better reason then that.”

   Kelly’s mind was a spinning kaleidoscope of arguments and retorts, but the red flaring up had them all jumbled up, and she didn’t know what to say.

   That she wasn’t really crying. That that definitely isn’t how relationships work. Was Brian stupid? Did she really have to sit down with him and explain to him human nature, walk him through how commitment was this pipe dream poison of wishful-thinking? That fuck, he really was right about her being a roller coaster, because it felt like she’d gone from about to jump his bones to completely falling apart in the span of seconds. Worse yet, she was still so turned on that her body felt eager to melt into his arms, to submit to whatever optimistic nonsense he was saying, because maybe he would reward her with more of this tactile body-on-body intimacy she just completely couldn’t fucking get enough of ever.

   “Y-you—” Kelly screwed up her face and then smeared tears along the back of her hand as she struggled to chase down coherent words to put together. “Yesterday was day one.”

   “Fine, yesterday was day one, then,” Brian pulled back the hand that had been cradling her head and then moved it back in, running fingers through her hair. It felt good. “So, are you breaking up with me? On day two?”

   “I—” Kelly’s throat constricted in panic. “Fuck, I don’t know? I don’t know!”

   “Well, I’m not letting go of you until you are,” Brian said, taking on a stubborn tone. “I think—I kinda guess I did see something like this coming, just not whatever bullshit you were thinking. I did think you might start to get, uh, uneasy once it felt like things were going too well. That it’d make you uncomfortable.

   “You were forged into who you are by a really shitty life, and that’s what you know. I was the same. Failing to adjust to anything else, failing to, to learn to ever let my guard down and let people in, after bullshit living with abusive parents. Maybe I started retreating back into that shell after going through all of that all over again with Chloe. But, just—Kelly, you mean a lot to me. To all of us. You were the one who kept trying to pull me out of that shell I was in and fucking open myself up to people, you and Steph, and—well. Here I am. So, I’m not, we’re not going to let you just keep struggling it out on your own, to keep getting yourself into bad situations, to keep letting your life head that way.”

   C’mon, what the actual fuck. Was Steph fucking around in my head? Unlocking doors and unlatching windows and shit? Kelly didn’t feel good, she hated this, but paradoxically, her body was lapping up his attention like she’d never even been looked at before and literally jonesing for more and more. The flecks of starlight saturating her being throbbed for him, the way he was stroking fingers through her hair had her stretching her neck up for more, and her legs were trembling.

   “Brian?” Kelly asked in a small voice. “I, uh. I think I might be real fucked up.”

   She knew she was fucked up, everyone knew, but admitting it out loud when she actually felt vulnerable brought on another wave of tears that she couldn’t fight back. In a lot of ways it felt like a betrayal, but also, Kelly felt torn in several directions on it now that her feelings AND body were working against her. I want to laugh in his face at how NAIVE his whole fucking outlook is. But, it’s like if I even dare to open my mouth, all that’s gonna come out is a YES, PLEASE or a THANK FUCKING GOD or PLEASE SAVE ME, PLEASE *PLEASE* DON’T EVER LET ME GO!

   Either Brian’s seemingly unfounded fears of the harem charm brainwashing them were actually justified, or most of Kelly was simply sick of Kelly being in charge of this shitshow of a life and wanted out. She wasn’t sure which was which. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was neither. All she knew was that his arms were around her, she was weeping like a teenage girl, and she was maybe even hornier than she’d been before back there swapping psychoactive cum with Emily. Kelly’s seldom-used submissive switch was flicked, and her body either ached to obey him, or maybe just cried out to be free of Kelly’s self-tyranny.

   “—S’okay, Kell,” Brian murmured. He’d been reassuring her this whole time, but she’d been so hypnotized by it that she hadn’t been understanding his actual words for a bit. “We’re all fucked up. But, together we’re—we’re better. Alright? Together, we’re okay. We’re okay, right?”

   “Brian, can we—can we fuck?” Kelly pleaded with a small sniffle. “Please? I just, I really need it bad right now. Hhah-ha. Please?”

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