Light novel = A type of novel in Japan which is characterized by having manga-style images in combination with regular text. This type of media isn't really that popular in the West, and doesn't get scanlated or translated very often, which is too bad, because a lot of light novels do get turned into anime or manga, but you always lose some of the original content that way.

The bus ride to Izzy's place isn't too long and I like the view, both next to me and out of the window. Izzy was right when she said that she lived in a pretty old neighbourhood, these houses are seriously old. Though, probably just as old as some of the neighbourhoods in the city centre of Groningen, so I'm pretty used to it. It's interesting to see the different styles of houses between the two cities, though.

The inside of Izzy's house is pretty nicely decorated, though not overwhelmingly so. And after she quickly points me to the living room, the kitchen and a couple of other small places on the ground floor, we go up the stairs and then we stop in front of a new door.

"My room is upstairs, don't scare from the mess, I tried cleaning it." She lets out an awkward laugh and I reach out, putting my fingers to her cheek, leaning in. I want to kiss her, she looks adorable when she's a little nervous. Her eyes grow and she looks everywhere but me. "Oh, and don't pay too much attention to the posters and stuff." Her cheeks colour as she says it.

"The posters?" I raise an eyebrow, but can't help smiling.

"Yeah. The posters." She lets out a sigh and then opens the door.

Behind the door is a set of stairs but the most obvious thing is the poster right across the door of Yuri!!! on Ice. Ah, that's what she meant with posters.

Izzy walks ahead of me and I close the door behind me. Every little piece of wall in here is covered in posters or cards, almost all of anime, though I recognise a couple of games and even some bands.

"This is my room." She steps to the side and as I take the last couple of steps, I look around.

The place is big, and very full. In a way, it makes total sense that this is Izzy's room. It's cluttered, busy and very cheerfully coloured.

"This is my gaming corner." She points to a TV and a couch. "Then there is my atelier, and behind that my bed." She shrugs. "That's kind of it."

"Right." I take her hand and pull her to me. "Before anything else, I'd like to kiss you now."

Her eyes grow. "Oh." She almost sounds surprised.

"Can I?" I slide my arms around her and her arms slide around my neck.

"Yeah." She smiles now, leaning closer. "I'd like that."

"Good." I nervously lick my lips and then cover the last distance between us. Her lips are soft and warm, giving in as I push on a little. Sparks go through my body from every point where we touch, sparks that set my whole body on fire.

When she stills in my arms a moment, I pull back.

"You okay?" I try to see if I made her uncomfortable.

She's smiling still, but looks awkward. "I'm good. Just..." She shrugs a little. "Still not used to it." She runs her tongue over her lower lip.

"Maybe you will be after the weekend." I pull her away from the stairs, finding a safer place to stand around, a place where one misstep doesn't end this weekend in a fun trip to the hospital with multiple broken bones.

"Maybe." She nods.

I sit down on the couch, tugging on Izzy's hand to come sit down too and she nervously sits down next to me. The silence between us turns awkward fast. "Am I the first guy who's been here who you've wanted to kiss?"

Izzy flashes me a grin. "You're the first person who's been here who I've wanted to kiss like that."

"First boy or girl here?"

She shrugs a little. "First boy, girl, non-binary, anything. I've not... not done this before."

I bump my shoulder into hers. "It's an honour then."

Izzy lets out a snort and looks at me. "You're silly."

"And you're smiling again." I pull on her, trying to get her to sit on my lap. This couch feels like a perfect couch to make out on.

After a couple of awkward moments, she's on my lap, straddling me, her skirt fanning out around us. I put my arms around her waist, holding her comfortably, but not too tightly.

I play with my thumbs over her back, trying to distract myself from the fact that I've got a beautiful girl in my lap and my body is definitely responding to it. My jeans are getting tight, right where she's sitting, and I'm pretty sure that she can feel it too.

She keeps looking at me, a mixture of nervousness and curiosity on her beautiful features. Then she leans in and starts kissing me again, her arms around my neck. This time she's much more active and aggressive with her kisses. Not just her lips but also with her tongue and she's even nibbling on my lower lip.

I try to keep up with her, but my head is filled with everything and it all feels so good. I let out a soft moan, and Izzy stills in my arms, stopping her kiss. Not good. "Izzy?" I open my eyes, looking at her. "What's wrong?" My voice is quiet, trying not to spook her even more.

"I don't know if I can do this." It sounds like she's about to cry and I pull back further, taking a better look at her.

"Can't do what?" I reach up with one hand, running my thumb over her cheek. She may not be crying right now, but she looks about to.

She opens her mouth, her lips forming words but nothing comes out. Then she takes a deep breath. "I don't know if I can do more than kissing. I don't know. I..." She shakes her head, tears now forming on her lashes. "I know that you'll probably... But..." She shakes her head, almost climbing off my lap. "I don't know."

I tighten my arm around her waist, keeping her in place just a little. She can break out easily if she wants to, but I hope it stops her from fleeing immediately. If she gets off now, she'll run off and we'll probably not get a good chance to bring this up again without it becoming even more awkward. "Izzy," I whisper, sliding my hand into her hair, softly stroking it. "Izzy, Izzy."

She looks at me, anxiety in her eyes.

"I like kissing you. I'd love to kiss you all weekend long." I slide my hand down her neck, my fingers playing over the exposed skin there. "I've said it before. I'm okay with taking it as slow as you want me to. Really."

"But you're already..." She looks down between us. Towards where my hard-on is caught in my jeans.

"I know. And just because my body reacts like that doesn't mean that we have to do anything."

She frowns, confused now. "Don't you want to?"

I can't help my smile. No matter how I've got no idea about how to 'do things' with Izzy that involve more than stuff you can do over people's clothes... I did look it up this week, 'how to have sex with a trans girl', but most of the advise came down to 'do whatever you're both comfortable with', on top of some physical things that seemed pretty obvious when you're dealing with people who have bits like ours. But apart from being a total noob on how to have sex with a trans girl, like I already have experience with cis girls, I do totally want to do all sorts of 'dirty' things with her. That's not the problem. "I do want to. But I don't want you to be uncomfortable. I can deal with mister happy, he really doesn't need the be entertained every time he's awake." I'm totally blabbing now, making silly voices because I'm also not that comfortable talking about sex and bits, but Izzy burst out laughing.

"Mister happy?" She shakes her head. "Is that his name?"

I grin. "Only to make cute girls laugh." I slowly slide my hand up her neck again, into her hair and tug on her a little, pulling her closer. "But I'm serious. I'm not looking to do things you're not comfortable with. You get to set the pace, we're going your speed." Because as long as I get to hold her and be with her, any speed is good with me.

She nods and then puts her lips on mine again, kissing me hard before pulling back. "You're really okay with me? With me? My body?" She's frowning again, worrying.

"I am. You're beautiful and you're amazing. The rest we'll figure out when we get to it." I keep my voice light. I really don't want to scare her off, even though I feel like I keep doing exactly that. Scaring her off.

Or maybe it's just that she doesn't really believe me yet. Maybe she doesn't really believe yet that I really do want and like her. But that just means I have to keep convincing her until she does believe it.

No matter how long that takes.

***

Izzy is dozing off, her head on my shoulder, as we're watching an old season of Cardcaptor Sakura.

We've both not seen it for a long time, but my eyes kept being pulled to the poster of a very intimate, but fully clothed, scene between Sakura and Tomoyo on the wall opposite the couch. We may have had some plans to go into the city centre today, but I don't think they're going to happen any time soon. Staying inside and watching anime is both the more couple-y and the saner option, as it's really really hot outside today.

I hear sounds come from the floors below and then the door downstairs opens.

"Izzy?" It's a woman's voice. "You home?"

"Yeah," Izzy calls out sleepily, not moving away, though I can feel her tense up a little. "Up here."

There are footsteps on the stairs and I see a woman who looks a lot like an older version of Izzy, just with lighter hair and a slightly sterner face. As she sees me, she smiles. "Ah, he's here. Hi, I'm Izzy's mom." She waves a little at me.

I wave back. "Elliot. But I'm pretty sure you already know that." I smile back.

"I guessed as much." She takes the last couple of steps and looks at the TV. "Ah. It's been a while since I've seen that one." Then she looks back at us, her eyes soft. "I'm ordering pizza. Do you have anything you really like or can't have?"

I shrug as best as I can with Izzy stuck to my shoulder. "I don't prefer fish on my pizza. But I love peppers or chilis and I like cheese?"

"I want a cheese pizza." Izzy looks at her mom. "Sliced, please."

Izzy's mom grins. "Coming right up. You want to continue watching that downstairs or want to watch something else?"

Izzy thinks for a moment, then she looks at me, sitting up. "You want to watch anime downstairs or a TV series or something? We're watching Bones right now. Like, me, Mom and Dad. And Jason, when he's here."

"I'm good with anything." I look between them.

Then Izzy's mom nods, before looking at Izzy. "Is Jason joining us?"

"I don't know." She frowns a little, eyeing me. "If he's joining us, he'll probably stay a while. We can watch more anime or play games or something. I don't know." She's obviously not used to him not being around all the time, and maybe having a bit of a buffer will make her feel less awkward around me. Plus, the guy's pretty cool.

"Sure. Maybe I can beat him at Soulcalibur or something. He did challenge me at AmAnime, telling me that I wouldn't be able to beat him with Kilik." I smile and Izzy's grinning too.

"I'll message him and tell him to bring his GameCube over." She grabs her phone.

"And I'll order the pizzas. I'll see you two downstairs in a while." She walks down the stairs. Before she's out of sight, she looks back, smiling.

Well, that seems to be one parent who's approved of me. Good. One down, one to go... And to not mess up things with Jason, of course.

"Jason is coming right over. He said he's looking forward to kicking your ass." Izzy turns to me, grinning, her eyes sparkling.

"What?" I raise an eyebrow at her, and she grins more.

"I don't know. Jason is really good, you know." She shrugs a little.

"And so am I. I should take my save game with me next time." Next time. If there is a next time and if that goes well too.

That's a lot of ifs, but it also feels really exciting to think of, so that's good. Right?