The Gamer Chapter 1286 – Nightingale 1 – The Moment of Truth (Patreon)

John was feeling nervous.

It was the kind of nervousness a man felt when leaning in for an uncertain kiss, before he confessed his love, or went on a knee to propose. All those situations raced through John’s head, as he struggled to recall when he had last been this kind of nervous. He had not gone for any uncertain kisses recently, not confessed any love he didn’t know was returned, and the proposals in his future already had their answers stated. He just needed to put a ring on it.

This was a different matter. To start with, Nightingale had the power to prevent him from spying on her. If she had the power to do it even if he poured mana into the effort was a difficult question, but he leaned towards yes. As goddess of the night, veiling what she wanted veiled was her speciality. To that, one had to add that it was fundamentally easier to obscure information than to decipher it, even when it came to magic.

Secondly, John was moving quickly on this. Quick was a bit of the norm when it came to him and relationship decisions. That being said, John had not yet picked up a relationship he regretted, so he felt quite confident. The problem was that he usually made his swift decision in the form of a question. Whether that was leaving his bedroom door open or inviting someone to his organization, what he ultimately put out there was an invitation. This was more of an ultimatum.

Basically, he usually had more wiggle room.

Of course, he already knew this was going to be the situation when he had made the announcement yesterday. This nervousness was entirely of his own making. Being prepared for it was a whole different matter than not feeling it though.

“Man, this is getting to you,” Lee commented. Something in the way he walked must have tipped her off. “Were you this nervous when it came to our date?”

“Well, I had no reason to be nervous for our date, because that was a foregone conclusion.”

“Ya remember the amount of thirst ya displayed?” Rave poked.

“Oh, ha-ha, let’s bully the honest girl, sure, okay, I’ll remember to be more like Scarlett and just tease you all the time, my dudes.” Lee looked demonstrably off to the side with a mixture of artistic annoyance and a ‘please grab me’ blush.

John and Rave, ever the dynamic duo, fulfilled that unspoken wish in unison. Taking the gamer girl between them, they slowed down on their strides to grope her all over. John went for the butt and thunder thighs, Rave cupped her tits, both latched onto her ears. Whatever protests Lee may have had were immediately quieted by the intensity of the power couple’s loving embrace.

“Don’t ya wanna keep being a good girl?” Rave whispered from the right. Her hands went all over the petite hills of Lee’s breasts, which softly raised the black, buttoned shirt she was wearing. Hard nipples poked through the front before long.

“Good girls get rewards at the end of the day,” John purred from the left, squeezing Lee’s ass through the skinny jeans of a muted blue colour she was wearing. They showed off every part of her butt’s curves, and when she placed her foot with a bit more than regular intensity, her thighs jiggled. John added to it all by smacking her backside once. “Maybe they get hunted through the woods by a dangerous man, when he feels like they are worth chasing down.”

Lee took a deep breath, recalling their first time together. It had been the best decision he had made on their first date, to make her deflowering a matter not just of sex but also general excitement. “Okay, stop, stooooop!” She managed to gather her self-control, putting her hands on the faces of her molesters and pushing them away.

Knowing they could have taken her all the way, the dom and his switch girlfriend relented and retreated. Dancingly, Rave circled around and attached herself to John’s left. Hugging his side, she left his arm open to greet her warmth by giving her ass a nice smack. She moaned, throatily, and gave him a huge grin, revealing her pointy canines. The little accents of her feline aspects never ceased to amaze him.

Rave was wearing a fairly typical combination of a white blouse and baby blue yoga pants. It made her appear barely formal enough to pass for proper events, without leaving her preferred realm of casual and sexy clothes. It also made her, clothing wise, quite the opposite to Lee. One was a bright party girl, the other a dark gamer girl. The status was reflected in everything from their body language, to the eye colours, blue versus hazel, and the hair, neon pinks versus blackish brown.

“Gaia bless enchanted panties.” Lee cleared her throat, then brought the topic back around. “Nightingale was pretty forthcoming about sexual stuff too, so I don’t get what the huge difference here is?”

“You want me to be honest?” John asked.

“Sure, shoot me.”

“She’s older than you,” the Gamer put it bluntly.

“Oy, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means she isn’t as emotional about this whole thing.” John hesitated for a moment, but he had already ripped the band-aid off, so he knew he should explain in detail. “Just compare what you did when we started to get together: you had a crush on me – on us…” Rave waved, as a stand-in of the entire harem. “…and then you went on the full-on offensive.”

“I double-checked stuff,” Lee insisted.

“Well… yes, okay, you did, but I wouldn’t say you did more than the bare minimum.” John sighed. “Look, I know this sounds terrible…”

“I ain’t made of sugar, dude, you can keep going.”

“Then why are you so sweet?”

“Dude, I’ll headbutt you in the dick.”

“…Message received. Point is, you wanted this with all your heart and you went in to get it. Nightingale and I started our relationship on the basis of business more than pleasure and she’s definitely more of an overthinker than you are. The sexual aspect of what we got going on we more or less glided into because of circumstances… although it says a lot that we never stopped.”

“Point is,” Rave chimed in, “Nightingale isn’t here because she’s in love with John, she’s here because she thinks John is a good fit for her. That make sense?”

“Put it better than I could… that doesn’t happen often.”

“And ya say I suck at explaining stuff.”

“”You do,”” John and Lee assured her in unison, making the feline Lightbearer hiss in return.

Lee giggled, then continued, “Anyway, if you put it like that, I get it. Now you went ahead and put her on the stuff and are nervous because you can’t be sure she’s as certain about our future together as you are.”

“Love that you said ‘our’ there,” John hummed.

“You really still get a kick out of people stating the obvious?” Lee asked, drily. “Want me to remind you the sky is blue next? Of course, it’s ‘our’ future, we’re your harem, idiot.”

“Don’t make me snuggle you until you pass out,” John threatened.

“Oooh nooooo.” Lee rolled her eyes with such intensity, her entire head followed the motion. “Next you will tell me you will buy me a life-sized night elf statue.”

“Do you want one?”

“Where would I even put that?”

“Ya do have a room.”

“I only use that when I want to game on my own.”

“Good manners would be if you watched porn there instead of the shared computer room.”

“But who would catch me if I did that?”

“Touché,” John surrendered the point and took his hand off her ass. He only did that to take out his phone and open a certain remote control app. He pressed a button and heard a poorly suppressed moan from Lee. “Kinky girl.”

“Hey, you said good girls get chased through the woods. I’m being a good girl.”

“And I will remember that,” John promised. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Just for being here.” John pulled both of them a bit closer, after deactivating the vibrator. It had become quite the habit for her, spurred on by him. The possibilities of that were vast, but his mind returned to the nervousness. The door to Nightingale’s apartment was in view.

As per usual, it was slightly ajar. This was neither a good nor bad sign and that already made John’s heart beat louder in his chest. The paranoia rose further and further, as they stepped into the entrance way. He held the two women he had with him close. He held what he had close. ‘Should I worry that a single woman could break my heart or should I be thankful I have not dulled at all when it comes to romance?’ the Gamer wondered, trying to distract himself from the worst of all signs.

He didn’t hear singing.

Walking ahead, they opened the door to the living room. He found half the lights switched on, putting everything in a soft twilight. There were no sounds and no movements, for there was no one to speak or react to their intrusion. Only the three of them were there, in a vacated apartment.

John took a deep breath and hurriedly checked the balcony. He found the window removed, like it should have been when someone flew in or out of the apartment. “She left,” he said, his tone brittle and weak. The realization hadn’t quite settled in yet.

This had always been a possibility. He had known that. He had willingly given Nightingale that power over him. Now she had used it in the only way he didn’t know how to handle. Gazing out into the Guild Hall, where the blue sky of the afternoon stretched over the landscape, he tried to understand how he should feel. Angry? Did he have that right? Disappointed? Hurt, perhaps?

Rave approached him from behind, putting a hand on the back of his neck. “Chin up, tiger, I don’t think it’s that simple.” Her soft words were accompanied by gentle rubs. The pink lustre in her eyes was tightly focused around her pupils. There was no emptiness in those eyes, no white lie, just the honesty of her opinion.

The Gamer took a deep breath. Complicated emotions nearly convinced him to get angry with her for daring to give HIM advice in such matters. Shoving that useless part of his pride aside, he leaned over to quickly kiss Rave. On her lips, he found his balance. In her happy hum, he knew his purpose. “Alright.” He cleared his throat, leaving the knot of his stomach where it was. Either it would be dissolved by further understanding the situation or he would deal with it later. “Alright,” he repeated, “do you think Nightingale wants to be one of us?”

“I do,” Rave assured him with a soft smile. “And you know what that means.”

Rolling his shoulders, John turned around and was practically assaulted by Lee. The considerably smaller woman jumped at him, her arms wrapped around his neck so she could easily put her lips on his. Even though John had felt her approach with his additional senses, this aggressiveness was not what he had expected. He didn’t mind either though and he rapidly answered in kind. Rave had put him back in control, Lee gave him back all of his confidence.

“Now, what was that for?” John asked, holding her up by the thighs. Rather than answer, Lee looked off to the side and blushed. “NOW you get bashful?” John laughed, a bit too loud for the situation.

“I, uhm, pshh,” Lee stammered. “Dunno, it was just… oh wow, this is going to sound so bad.”

“I’m not made out of sugar.”

“Oy!” Lee softly headbutted him. “It’s just… nice to see you care so much about one of us.”

“One of us, is she?” John wondered, looking towards the open window again.

“If Jane feels that way…”

“…That’s a fair point,” John conceded and slowly let Lee down. “Alright, Jane, use your freaky mind-reading powers.”

“It ain’t mind reading, I just live in everyone’s brain for free because I’m the best girl.” Rave winked and then led the way back to the living room. They followed her enticingly wiggling finger. “She left the lights on, so there’s something here she wants found. Now, if I was a drama queen – which I tots can be – then I would put it somewhere kinda but not totally obvious.”

“I got it,” John told her. That little insight into Nightingale’s mind was all he needed for the rest to click together in his brain. Walking towards a potted plant near the centre of the room, he knelt down and swiftly found in the dirt what he was looking for. A polished green crystal, about the size of a golf ball.

He picked it up and soon heard a voice inside his head.

‘Took you long enough,’ Delicia teased.