Disclaimer: DaMastah101 doesn't own DDLC. Ahaha~!
When you're the son of a family that runs a pretty known bakery in your neighborhood, sometimes days could get pretty exhausting due to the workload.
Such was the case with a certain teen named Harold Meyer.
Harold was a pretty diligent boy for his age. He was currently eighteen years old, and yet he was mature enough to understand the importance of practicality and profit. Together with his parents, their family bakery thrived within the neighborhood and business was booming wonderfully.
He was also able to balance his schoolwork with helping out the bakery. Since his classes ended at around 4-ish in the afternoon, and their house was only a mere 8-minute walk from school, this allowed him to still able to help out until the store's closing time. On the weekends, he devoted most of his time working at their family business.
A lot of their regular customers had shown favor towards the boy, due to his polite demeanor and friendly smile, whenever he sold the various pastries and items that their store offered. Bagels, muffins, loaves of bread, you name it.
However, at the end of each day, there was one thing Harold looked forward to the most.
It was when he finally had some free time to play Doki Doki Literature Club, a very popular game for people his age.
He had particularly grown fond of Monika, the club president and a major character in DDLC. Having already finished the game once, he had decided to play through the game once more and leave it on Act 3, which happened to be the infamous "Just Monika" scenario of the game. Even though some of the dialogue repeated, he didn't get tired of listening to whatever Monika had to say. Her insight always astounded him, and he was deeply impressed on how well-written her character was, once you took the time to listen to everything she told you.
His fatigue also seemed to wash away whenever he stared into those wonderful emerald green eyes. If he were being completely honest, you could say Harold was smitten.
To be honest, Harold liked all of the girls in DDLC. In his opinion, all of them were wonderful girls that had their own charms.
Well, all except for one.
He wasn't particularly fond of the game's resident pink-haired tsundere. The smallest among the girls in terms of physique, while at the same time having the loudest mouth.
Natsuki.
It was pretty ironic, considering that his family was well-versed in the art of pastry-making. Natsuki happened to be the game's resident baker, and DDLC even establishes this fact early on in the story, when the MC gets lured by Sayori into joining the club with Natsuki's patented cupcakes. Yet for some reason, he didn't really like the girl.
In his honest opinion, she was too temperamental and high maintenance. Sure, he understood that Natsuki's backstory involved being physically and emotionally abused by her father. And he felt really bad for the girl because of that. But it didn't change the fact that Natsuki was the least desirable girl among the four of them in his opinion. Then again, he was a Monika fan at heart. So it might've been the bias that was talking.
He had to admit though, even if Natsuki was last place in his Doki rankings, she was pretty cute. If only her attitude was as attractive.
"Phew! I'm beat. Oh well, at least we had a good haul today."
It was true. As Harold sat on his computer desk's office chair, he smiled to himself. There were a lot of customers today, and the sales quota was not only met, but exceeded by three times too! Business was pretty good for the Meyers. Hopefully, it would continue being like that for the rest of the month at least.
Stretching his arms a bit, he then boots up his computer and starts up Doki Doki Literature Club. He is once again greeted by the familiar space classroom, as well as Monika's unwavering gaze.
As he read Monika's usual lines, he felt his eyelids slowly dropping. He was getting pretty sleepy. Harold tries to shake off the drowsiness and continues reading Monika's dialogue.
However, his resistance proved to be futile and he ended up dozing off in front of his computer.
After some time had passed, he slowly stirs from his sleep. He could faintly hear the sound of a voice calling out to him.
"w...ke ...lready..."
Harold gradually wakes up and the voice started to become clearer. It was a girl's voice.
"Wake up already! How long are you going to sit your butt over there! It's rude to keep a girl waiting."
The boy, now fully awake, tried to search for the owner of the voice. His eyes landed on a petite girl, who was currently sitting on his bed. She had strikingly noticeable pink hair.
"Finally. Jeez, how tired were you to be able to sleep that soundly?"
"...Pardon?"
"Look buster, I'm just as confused as you are. Just a couple of minutes ago, I was trying to convince Yuri that manga counted as literature, when all of a sudden I found myself transported to... wherever this place is." the girl performs a wide gesture with her arms, as if trying to illustrate her point.
Harold, too stupefied at what was transpiring in front of him, could only blink and say a few words in response.
"Uh... huh."
"I was hoping you could fill me in on what's happening. That's why I kept on waking you up. In fact, who the hell are you?"
"H-Harold. Harold Meyer. And I know that your name is Natsuki."
The pink-haired girl's eyes widen a bit at the mention of her name, before settling back into an indifferent look. "Harold Meyer. What a plain name befitting someone like you."
"That's pretty rude..." the boy mutters to himself, hoping that Natsuki wouldn't hear him. Fortunately, she shows no sign of doing so.
"But more importantly, how do you know my name? I've never told you and we haven't even met before. And why am I here instead of the clubroom?"
After getting over his shock, Harold regains his composure.
Well, he tried to remain calm on the outside at least. Inwardly, he was still pretty awestruck at the sudden turn of events.
His least favorite girl from Doki Doki Literature Club, just happened to appear in his bedroom. Maybe it was a lack of sleep, or maybe he was too tired and his eyes started seeing things? Still, why couldn't it have been Monika instead?
"I'll... explain stuff to you. Just wait here for now. You could read some of my books on that bookshelf over there, or use my computer I guess. I just need to take care of some things for a quick moment before we discuss your situation." Harold tells the girl, who just glares at him but silently complies anyway.
Harold then goes out of his bedroom, leaving Natsuki alone to her thoughts.
"There better be a good reason why I'm in this dump all of a sudden." she remarks when the boy was out of earshot.
Around fifteen minutes later, Harold comes back. He had brought his parents with him.
"See, there she is. I'm not joking mom! She's really here. Dad, you believe me right?" he asks the two adults, who just stood there. Dumbstruck.
"Harold... how is this possible?" the boy merely shakes his head in reply. He literally had no idea. The matriarch then turns to the other male.
"Dear, do you have any idea what might've caused this fictional character to appear in our son's room?" Carol Meyer, the mother of the family questions out loud, while looking at her husband for answers.
"I'm not sure honey, maybe all three of us are just a bit too tired from today's work..." Jonathan Meyer replies with a clueless shrug. The boy's father didn't really have any hypothesis on this either. He was just as bewildered as his wife and son.
"Hey! I'm right here you know! I would appreciate it if you three didn't talk about the topic of your discussion when she's nearby." Natsuki huffs and heatedly stares at the Meyer family, causing all three of them to glow red in embarassment.
Carol is the first to apologize to the girl. "Sorry about that sweetie, we were just a bit shocked about this. We know all about the game our son is playing, Doki Doki Literature Club. He talks about it quite a bit at our bakery and my husband and I did a little research about it. Your name is Natsuki, right? I recognize you from one of the screenshots found on Google."
"Y-yeah, my name is Natsuki. But what did you mean when you said I'm a fictional character? And what is this 'Doki Doki Literature Club' thing you just mentioned...?"
Jonathan places a hand on Natsuki's shoulder. "Don't worry little girl, we'll get you up to speed on what you need to know."
And so, the following hour consisted of Harold, Carol and Jonathan explaining to Natsuki that she was part of a video game. That she had come from Harold's computer. Everything she knew, Yuri, Sayori, Monika, the literature club, and everything else were all part of the game called Doki Doki Literature Club.
Harold even took the extra mile and started a fresh new game of DDLC.
"Go on, play it Natsuki."
The confused girl could only obey the request, and she starts to play Act 1 of the game. She was already pretty convinced at this point about what the family had been telling her, due to how accurate the game was in depicting Sayori as she greeted the player. There was also the fact that the game seemed to chronicle events that she indeed knew to be part of her memories.
She finally reaches the first scene that she appears in. She reads the text that appears in front of her.
"Seriously? You brought a boy? Way to kill the atmos...phere..." Natsuki gasps before looking at the Meyers. There was no denying it this time. She vividly remembered this exact scene as the time that the new guy joined their club. Carol and Jonathan smiled sadly at her, clearly sympathisizing with Natsuki, while Harold just shrugged. The boy stood up and went over to his computer.
"It's true... I'm just a video game character..." Natsuki says in a dull voice, losing her will to even move. She glances at Harold.
"Harold, was it?" the defeated girl asks the boy who was in the middle of closing the game and turning off his PC in order to save electricity.
"Yep. What is it, Natsuki?"
"Thank you for telling me what I needed to know. Thank you as well, Mr. and Mrs. Meyer." the two adults merely smile at her in return.
"I think... I'll be going now. I need to find a place to stay and I've been intruding for a while now in your son's bedroom... sorry for the trouble." she mumbles and prepares to exit the bedroom when suddenly, Jonathan stops her.
"Hold it right there young lady, we here at the Meyer household aren't going to let a sweet little girl like you sleep out on the streets."
"Huh?" the pink-haired girl asks out of confusion.
Carol chimes in. "He's right, from now on, you'll be staying with us! If that's okay with you, of course. Haha." She offers with a kind and warm smile at the girl, who currently remained frozen in her spot, flabbergasted.
"But... won't I be a burden to all of you? I mean, you mentioned that the three of you were running a bakery. I wouldn't want to add onto your problems."
"We'll be fine, sweetie. We'd be more than happy to add one more member to our humble family. Isn't that right, Harold?" the kind mother reassures the girl.
The boy in question merely grunts uncharacteristically from his usual polite self. "Fine, I guess."
He really would've liked it if it were Monika instead of freaking Natsuki. Even Yuri or Sayori would've been better. But no, it had to be this girl. Harold was having trouble hiding his disappointment.
Natsuki senses this and interjects. "Your son doesn't seem too thrilled to have me here though-"
"You can't prove that." The boy says indignantly, but mentally he agreed. The prospect of having Natsuki live with him 24/7 wasn't that enticing for him.
"-so I think I should go. I do appreciate the offer though. Thanks." The pink-haired girl once again makes a move towards the exit but merely gets halted yet again.
"Please do reconsider Natsuki, we'd really love it if you'd stay with us..." Jonathan tells her with a sad look on his face. Natsuki, not having the heart to disappoint the patriarch, returns to her prior spot on Harold's bed with a faint blush.
"And besides, Harold over here wouldn't be a problem. He'll warm up eventually. Isn't that right, son?" Carol smiles sweetly while giving Harold a one-armed hug.
"Eh... I don't know mom..."
"ISN'T THAT RIGHT, SON?" she repeats with emphasis, her left eye twitching a bit. The boy looks at his father for support but Jonathan was merely giving his wife the thumbs up of approval.
"Ugh, fine..." Harold finally concedes and Natsuki remains silent at the entire exhange, not really knowing what she could've said at that moment.
Jonathan looks visibly elated after hearing that. "Great! Then it's settled. Welcome to the family, Natsuki. Group hug!" the jolly patriarch declares and soon, all four of them were locked in a warm embrace, Harold and Natsuki both being unwilling participants in the sudden show of affection.
And thus, all seemed right in the world.
It was decided that Natsuki's room would be the currently unused guest room that they had. Since she didn't really have any personal belongings with her, or clothes for that matter aside from the school uniform that she was wearing, the Meyers would take her out for some necessary shopping tomorrow. In the meantime, Natsuki had been given some supplies to use by Carol.
An excited Jonathan also gave the girl a mini-tour of the Meyer household, showing her basic stuff such as where the fridge was or where to get some toilet paper if the bathrooms ran out. He loved being a doting father, and Natsuki was already warming up to the family quickly.
She was pretty excited to see the family bakery with her own eyes too, after their planned shopping trip tomorrow. Natsuki was a baker at heart after all, and she wanted to have the Meyers try her signature cupcakes too.
The pink-haired tsundere was a lot smaller than Carol, which meant that the clothes she were given were quite loose on her. But it would have to do for now until she could get proper clothing.
During all of this, Harold remained lying on his bed. In his mind, he had been going over everything that happened today.
"I guess it can't be helped. Natsuki's going to live here now, who would've thought?"
Sighing to himself, he stares at his ceiling. He really would've liked it better if Monika would've been the one to come out of his computer instead of Natsuki, but there was nothing he could do about it. He would have to start getting used to Natsuki's presence around him, and the fiery temperament that she brought with her.
That's right, the upcoming days were surely going to be a test of his patience and fortitude.
What Harold Meyer didn't know at the time however, was that this was the start of something beautiful.
-END-
A/N: Here's a little something I whipped up on a whim, and isn't meant to be taken seriously at all unlike my other fanfic, "The World Beyond The Screen".
This time, instead of the usual "Monika gets out of the game and becomes lovey-dovey with the player" trope, I tried something a little different.
Like I mentioned above, this story isn't meant to be taken too seriously. I mean, I even had the parents of the protagonist already accept the appearance of a game character in reality, without too much fuss lmao. That being said, I might crank out more of this in the future, if people happen to like it.
That's all I wanted to say for now, thanks for reading!
EDIT: February 06, 2018, 6:33 AM Central Time - Corrected several typos and misused words.