Chapter 43: An ordinary dinner…

“We’ll be down in a minute,” Melody called out, and Cindy probably walked away from the closed door, heading back downstairs. Then, Melody turned toward me. “You should probably get dressed again.”

I nodded, blushing, and climbed off the bed, scrambling around to slide on my thigh-highs, panties, bra, skirt, and then the blue sweater. After I dressed, I pocketed my phone, and Melody stood up from the bed.

Melody bent down to grab her cello case, saying, “Let’s go put this away first.”

She began heading to the door while I followed, and after another maze and a staircase, we reached a fairly large carpeted room. It didn’t fit the golden style in the rest of the house. There were three cello cases along the far wall, four after Melody placed hers with them, and there were two grand pianos to the left of those.

Along the right wall were some other instrument cases, no idea what. Definitely some violins and violas, but the non-string instruments all just had square black cases… and I don’t know what sizes those are. By the left wall were a couple shelves filled with folders and books and stuff, music I’m assuming. “Is music… like a big thing? For your family?”

“Not really,” Melody shrugged. “We let some of the staff use the instruments, and sometimes we have people performing for events, wherever the talent originates be it staff or guild members or hired musicians. Other than the professionals, most prefer our instruments.”

“Are they expensive?” Probably. Otherwise people wouldn’t prefer them… why don’t the professionals prefer them? Are their instruments more expensive? Or is it just a comfort thing?

“The instruments? Not luxurious, but certainly high quality,” Melody replied. “I think all four of these cellos are around 15 credits each.”

Damn… that’s expensive. I didn’t realize instruments actually got that expensive. Not even luxurious instruments… well maybe that’s luxurious for a normal person and Melody’s perception is just distorted. Probably actually. “Professionals don’t prefer them?”

“No,” Melody answered, waving her hand and gesturing for me to follow her out of the room, which I did. “Most of the professionals we hire have better instruments.”

“How expensive?” Fifteen credits seems crazy already. This isn’t dungeon gear, it's a piece of wood.

“Probably thirty to fifty credits. I don’t really know. Instruments are expensive.” As Melody finished speaking we rounded a final corner and entered the dining room, a very formal dining room with a long table in the middle. Melody walked down to one end, sitting not at the head but the first chair on the side. I pulled out the chair beside her and sat down.

A couple minutes later, Cindy brought out two plates, each with a salad of some sort. I used the supplied fork to poke around, and found some shrimp in there along with some tomatoes, cucumbers, and of course a large variety of green leaves or whatever salad is.

I started eating, it tasted okay. Honestly, the flavor was lackluster. There were spices and cheese and things, but it didn’t all meld together or anything. Also, why do we only have one fork? I thought rich people ate with like seven forks, three spoons, two knives, and three glasses of wine.

Melody and I ate through the rest of our meal pretty quickly. It definitely was a normal-ish meal. After the salad appetizer, there was a main course of perfectly cooked steak with a small, somewhat cheesy pasta side, and the meal ended with a vanilla ice cream dessert served in a cone glass with a little fresh cherry on top. Fake cherries are too cheap I guess.

Once dinner came to a close, Melody and I left the dining room, and as we stepped into the hallway, she asked. “Should we go back to the dorms?”

“Probably?” I don’t see what else we’d do. I mean, it's like seven so… “Do you want to do something else?”

“No…” Melody started walking through the maze, and I followed behind. “We could spend the night here.”

Spending the night? Why does that make me so… horny… but also why does that feel so much more intimate than anything we’ve done? But as much as I’d like to do that… “I don’t have clothes here.”

“Why do you need clothes?” Melody asked, genuinely confused.

Stupid Melody… but also… kind of true… “I—uh… I don’t have a toothbrush or… uh…”

“You could borrow mine,” Melody interrupted. “But we’ll go back to the dorms.”

“Okay.” I nodded.

Melody and I navigated our way out of her mansion or castle whatever it was and decided to take my car back to the dorms, mainly because it has more storage space in case we need it for either shopping or something dungeon-related. Not sure what.

After we arrived back at the dorms, I stripped, of course, and we spent the night watching another movie. Well… we watched a movie while also both doing things on our phone, if that counts. Once it ended it was nearing ten pm and we both decided to go to sleep, I took a shower and Melody took one after me, then we slept in her bed again… she’s just super warm, okay. That’s why I’m sleeping there.

The next morning, I woke up around nine with Melody already gone. The shower was running, so I guess she felt she needed another. Probably from my sweat. I sweat a lot, I think. Maybe it’s just because Melody is so hot… her sweat was leeching all over me. I need another shower. One with Melody maybe. Should I join her?

No… I’d get punished. But she is cute… and I’ve never really seen her all naked. I wonder if she locked the bathroom door.

After climbing out of the bed, I walked into the hallway, then cautiously crept to the bathroom door, which was closed. I placed my hand on the handle and carefully twisted the door open… it wasn’t locked.

Yeah. I’m doing it.

I pushed open the door, and walked into the bathroom, seeing Melody standing in the shower to the right, all naked and covered in water and steam… the steam actually blocked a lot since it fogged up the glass, but I got a nice outline of her figure, and Melody stopped running her hands through her hair, looking over at the door. “Scarlet?”

“Uh… hi.” I… why did I do this? Eek! How the frick could I ever think of barging in on Melody in the shower? I–I… I’ll just say I had to go to the bathroom… yeah. I walked over to the toilet bowl and sat down… I could just say I didn’t realize she was in here… right?

“Scarlet… why are you here?” Melody asked, going back to scrubbing her hair… she looked so sexy, moving her arms around, even though it was just through a blurry glass.

“I… uh… had to pee,” I replied, shifting my legs on the toilet. “I didn’t realize you were here.”

Melody sighed, rinsing off her hair one last time, then turning off the water. “That’s the shittiest lie I’ve heard in my life.”

Then she opened the shower door, reaching out to grab a towel she had placed on the counter. She only let her face and arm appear… but her breasts were shoved against the glass panel and washed away the condensation… her nipples and areolas were fully visible… and so symmetrical. My eyes were completely drawn there…

And Melody’s eyes noticed too. She grabbed the towel and blushed, quickly spinning around and drying off before wrapping herself with the towel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Melody that embarrassed before. It’s kinda cute. Also why do I feel so normal being naked already? It’s been less than a week.

Melody walked out wrapped in a towel and walked straight in front of the toilet bowl where I sat, with my arms pressing onto the gap between my legs. “I thought you had to pee? Where’s the yellow?”

Uh… “Seeing you… surprised me?”

“Surprised you?” Melody tilted her head. “So you lost the urge to pee?”

“Yes…?” That… could happen. I think.

Melody sighed again. “What will I ever do with you…”

“You could punish me…” I mumbled out, standing up from the toilet bowl and appearing inches away from Melody’s chest. I want to pull that towel off her so bad right now… but that might be a little too naughty. I think I’ve already built up a few too many punishments this morning.

“Oh I will,” Melody responded. “But we need to get ready for the dungeon this afternoon.”

“Fine…” I sighed, and leaned onto Melody’s chest, placing my hair against her still damp neck and snuggling into her bare skin, right above where she wrapped the towel. This is okay, right?

Melody patted my head. “Get off, kitty. Go get dressed.”

Pouting, I took a small step back, careful not to fall over the toilet. Melody turned around and began walking out of the bathroom while I followed behind. We both went into our own rooms to get dressed. I wore my usual ankle-high socks, black skirt, black shirt, and had to wear the same sweater as yesterday since I didn’t have any clean ones. Yeah, I forgot to do laundry again.

Dressed, I walked out into the hallway right as Melody exited her room. She wore what you’d expect for a normal day, black thigh-highs, black skirt, black sweater. I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t be wearing skirts into dungeons, but Melody probably has a plan of some sort. She’s been in a dungeon before so…

No point worrying. Push comes to shove, I can safe word and Melody and I can hide out until the secret security team she probably has rescues us. I'm sure I have enough mana to survive that long; it probably wouldn't be more than a few minutes and I think I have enough for a few hours.

Once we were downstairs, Melody sent a text message to the group asking if everyone was still available, and sending the location of the dungeon just in case they didn’t know it. After that, she asked, “Any breakfast suggestions?”

“Food court?” I replied. Melody smiled and nodded, then we left the dorm room and started the walk in the chillier than usual weather. The sun was intermittently shining down between the clouds. Winter is coming I guess. Or fall, really. I don’t think fall has started yet, although it definitely feels like it.

Melody and I ate our breakfast, then walked right back to the dorm. Melody clearly had a mission, as she went straight toward my new shiny black compact SUV. I unlocked the car and Melody and I hopped in, me in the driver's seat. “Where to?”

Sending me a text with the address, Melody spoke. “I have some items we need to pick up from here before the dungeon.”