"..."
Aoba opened his mouth, but for a moment, he actually couldn't say anything.
Only after quite a while passed, when Tenten was starting to get a little impatient and smacked him, did he finally swallow and react.
Even though so many years had gone by, he could be considered experienced enough.
Under normal circumstances, he definitely wouldn't lose his composure this easily.
But looking at Tenten in front of him… beneath that red long skirt, those soft little feet wrapped in black stockings, under the light, actually gave off a glossy, silky look like smooth chocolate.
Paired with that already incredibly charming red wedding outfit, along with the way she had taken the initiative to lift her skirt.
In the end, he still couldn't keep it together. His breathing inevitably grew heavier.
No helping it, the impact really was strong.
He didn't even have the mind to answer whether he liked it or not. He could only prove it with his actions.
Everything went without saying.
"Mmm~"
Even though she had prepared herself, Tenten still couldn't help letting out a muffled sound, then said a bit nervously, "Aoba… Aoba, don't ruin the clothes."
"Don't worry, I'll be careful."
Aoba gently wiped the corner of her eye.
"Then… the stockings should be fine, right?"
Tenten's face, which had just gone slightly pale, immediately flushed red again.
"The… the stockings… there are lots more in the sealing scroll. If you like, you can try them all…"
"..."
Then what was there left to say, just go all out.
———
Tenten didn't know when she fell asleep last night.
She only remembered that at the end, she was hugging Aoba's waist, her whole body feeling like it was melting into his arms.
Even after she had fallen asleep, those moments before sleep kept replaying in her dreams.
Under Aoba's advances, sometimes gentle like water, sometimes fierce like fire, the feelings between them deepened from the very root, until they became firmly entrenched.
When she woke up again from her dream and opened her eyes groggily, she saw Aoba's face right in front of her.
He seemed not to have woken up yet, his eyes closed, his breathing steady.
At that moment, Tenten looked at that face she had already seen for more than ten years, and still felt a bit dazed.
Even though she had seen it for over a decade, this was the first time she had woken up in bed and seen his face like this.
'It feels like a dream.'
Only when, in her haze, she felt the warmth from his embrace did she finally confirm that she wasn't dreaming, and that last night hadn't just been a dream either.
That incredibly real sensation was something no dream could ever produce.
Even though she felt a little embarrassed, as a girl in the prime of youth, Tenten would occasionally have strange dreams where it was just her and Aoba.
But in the past, whenever she had those kinds of dreams, because she lacked real experience, it would always get stuck at the crucial moment, leaving her hanging.
But last night's dream, because it filled in the experience she had always lacked, felt unbelievably real, and… smooth and seamless.
'Could it be…'
'This is what people mean by practice leads to true knowledge?'
Tenten had always been a girl full of curiosity.
After understanding this principle, she wanted to explore it a bit more.
So she moved a little closer, leaning toward the "true knowledge" she had finally obtained through practice.
Aoba: "?"
Aoba had actually already woken up.
It was just that when he saw Tenten sleeping so soundly, and how if he poked her cheek with his finger she would subconsciously pout, he simply closed his eyes again and waited for her to wake up.
But he never expected that the usually proper Tenten, the first thing she would do after waking up would be…
"..."
Aoba opened his eyes as well, looking at Tenten, who had her head lowered and was curiously studying "the truth," with an indescribable expression.
"Tenten, if you keep going, I won't be able to go to work."
"Why?", Tenten asked instinctively.
"Hm?"
But very quickly, she realized something was off. There were only two people in the room. Aoba was sleeping, so who was talking?
She looked up, and met Aoba's speechless expression.
"..."
The atmosphere fell into silence for a moment.
After a while, Tenten's pretty face flushed red, and she slowly shrank into the blanket.
Like an ostrich, hiding herself away.
Too embarrassed to face him.
"Heh!"
Aoba couldn't help but laugh.
But soon after, he suffered a heavy blow.
Retaliation from a tsundere was inevitable, though to him it felt no different from a massage.
Then, as if to make sure he could go to work in peace…
Aoba sucked in a sharp breath.
———
Tenten's physique was clearly not as strong as Karin's.
On top of that, with the special outfit bonus, the "battle intensity" wasn't low.
While it wasn't to the point of affecting her ability to move, going to work was obviously a bit too much.
Coincidentally, Konan was at home, so she directly took a day off.
And of course, Konan had no objections. Rather, Tenten taking a day off today actually made her feel relieved.
After all, if all these younger girls were like Karin, then as the older sisters, the pressure would be quite high.
"Come to think of it, Tenten, where did you and Aoba go yesterday?"
Karin curiously asked Tenten, who was eating red bean rice in small bites.
She didn't feel jealous, since she had been with him before Tenten.
And Aoba had gone to spend time with her last night too. She had asked him then, but he didn't tell her, so now she was a bit curious.
"Yesterday?"
Tenten, who had been a little embarrassed eating together with the whole family and had been focusing on her food, raised her head when she heard Karin's question.
She glanced at Aoba beside her, who had also put down his chopsticks and looked somewhat helpless, then the corners of her lips couldn't help but lift.
"Aoba and I went to a wedding shop yesterday, tried on wedding outfits, took lots of wedding photos, and at the end, we even exchanged rings and rehearsed a wedding."
"?"
A question mark was the shared reaction of everyone present.
Above everyone's heads, it was as if a circular loading bar appeared.
The dining table, which had just been lively, instantly became extremely quiet, so quiet it was almost dead silent.
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