Nazuna lay sprawled out on the couch with her back to the ceiling. She swished her thick, fuzzy tails back and forth in a slow, lazy manner.

Boring.

It was really boring.

Most of the guild's members were off doing various missions and quests. Usually, she'd take this opportunity for a cute heart-to-heart with her adorable Souji, but the guild master himself wasn't present, either. He was off to take his sword for repairs at Michitaka's and deal with some other business - there was a whole slew of girls forming a Soujiro Fan Club, apparently. As a result, it was just herself, Dolce, Isami, and the resident Lander maid Sara at the guildhall. The others would be out for a while, so she had some time to kill.

Normally, just chilling out with Dolce, Isami, and poking a little fun at the cute Sara would be fine with her, but all three of them were busy with their own business. She couldn't blame them; it had only been a little over five days since the Catastrophe had occurred. Everyone was trying to cope with these sudden changes. Some of the other girls were understandably worried sick about Souji, who had been the first death in Akiba. Fragrant Olive, for example, worried herself bedridden last night even though she acted fine for the several hours after his death and resurrection at the Cathedral. Today, some of the girls were out training or doing low-level quests that didn't involve much effort.

Speaking of busy, she had tried getting in contact with Rezarick and Takayama Misa, respectively the Black Sword Knights' and D.D.D.'s second-in-commands, much like herself. Despite adamantly attempting to persuade them to at least spare one night out, both had politely declined with the excuse that they had too much work to do. Well, calling it an excuse wasn't quite right, since it was true. As expected, D.D.D. started recruiting tirelessly after the Catastrophe - she herself had seen it when her guild defended two soon-to-be D.D.D. members right after the Catastrophe had hit. West Wind's Cleric Sandy was friends with one of the Black Sword's members, who had told her that Rezarick was shouldering his guild's administrative work alone, since no one else was willing to do it. Typical.

Nazuna puffed up her left cheek as she pouted. That wouldn't do. No matter how much stamina an Adventurer had, they'd burn out before long. Even through voice chat during Elder Tale's game days, she could tell that the two were diligent workers. They deserved a break. This definitely wasn't an excuse for her to drink that booze-that-tastes-like-water, she convinced herself. With a sense of purpose, Nazuna left the guildhall after bidding adieu to Dolce, who was sitting in the same room as her.

Since it was already evening, Magic Lights and Bugs Lights were everywhere, displaying various faces and emotions as she passed by. The walk to the Black Sword Knights' hall wasn't very far, especially with her Adventurer stamina. But once she got there, she was at a loss for what to do. Barging into the guildhall would be rude, not to mention that the guys might give her too much "attention" due to the guild's gender disparity in favor of men. Furthermore, Souji's relationship with Isaac was shaky at best. They weren't enemies, but they weren't friends, either; if anything, Souji was just that "annoying little brat" to Isaac. Pushing any sort of animosity between them was not among her list of things to do. She wanted to surprise Rezi-kun, too, but just entering the guildhall was definitely not going to be subtle, considering that the other guys tended to hoot for him if anybody was looking for him.

A tug on her sleeve made her aware of the presence of a very, very short girl. It was Kirin*ko, Sandy's friend in the Black Sword Knights, who stared at her with her upside-down v-shaped mouth. Nazuna found the shape to be rather cute, combined with her round, determined eyes, but usually Rezarick reprimanded her for playing with the younger girl's squishy face.

"Rezi-nii?" She was probably asking if she was looking for Rezarick.

"Hm? Yeah, is Rezi-kun around?"

"Busy," Kirin*ko replied with a pout, "so he can't go out and play." She pointed at a window on the second story of the guildhall; probably Rezarick's room or wherever he was doing his paperwork.

After a short pause, Nazuna developed a devilish gleam in her eyes. "Hey, Kirin*ko, do you wanna help me get Rezi-kun out?"

She tilted her head in confusion, and a nearby Magic Light mimicked her. "'Get out'? But he locked himself in there."

"That's right. Rezi-kun's working super hard for your guild, so he deserves a break, right? But if he leaves his room the normal way, people will probably just give him even more work. If he leaves out the window, though …"

Kirin*ko's face lit up in understanding. Obviously, she agreed with Nazuna and would probably do whatever she told her to do next.

"Here, Giraffie can take you up." Almost as if it were habit, she summoned what Nazuna presumed to be one of her favorite Summons, considering her username and her outfit. Since she wasn't using it for combat, it didn't seem as though the Guards cared. From how nonchalantly the girl had whipped out her Summon, she probably had done it multiple times already. Nice to know, Nazuna thought to herself. She climbed onto its back when, to her surprise, it walked over to Rezarick's window. Normally she wouldn't ever dream of climbing up a giraffe's back - breaking into a zoo cage to climb a relatively wild animal wasn't usually in one's priorities - but Nazuna decided that it would be okay to do it just this one time.

Climbing up to its head, Nazuna pressed herself to the window and made a funny face to see how long it would take Rezarick to notice.

No response.

What felt like 30 minutes later (it was really probably just 30 seconds), he finally flatly said, without even turning to face her, "I can't go drinking with you, Nazuna-san. Surely you can find another drinking buddy?" She really never knew how he could be aware of her presence like that.

"Oh, just give me the satisfaction, Rezi-kun." Even though she acted annoyed, Nazuna secretly found Rezi-kun cute in a strange sort of way. He wasn't hyperactive-puppy-like, which was what Souji was (when he wasn't murderous, at least), but his serious-yet-caring personality was something Nazuna found attractive in a platonic way. It was a nice contrast to his guild's image, which was "we don't care about anyone that isn't in this guild or can't fight." Several times, he had gone to aid lower-level players, and at one point even raided with the Debauchery Tea Party on his own when one of the main healers was missing (K.R. wasn't too pleased about that, but Kanami's word was effectively law).

He turned in his chair, his left arm resting on top of the chair's back. "Also, drinking too much isn't good for you." Just as she had expected, he saw right through her ploy. After a moment's pause, he seemed to realize just then that she was standing at his second-story window. "Wait, what are you-?" Looking down to see what exactly she was doing, he gave an exasperated sigh as the two co-conspirators grinned gleefully. "Anyways, I have to do all of this work, I'm sorry, Nazuna."

Giving a curious glance at the closest paper to her, she flatly pointed out to him that he had rewritten the same sentence three times in a row and spelled his name wrong in his signature. "-I think you're due for a break. Don't you agree?" To her delight, he just sighed and slumped in his chair, which she took as a sign of victory. From his next movements, she figured that he was accessing his menu. The second he pressed his hand to his ear, Nazuna grinned slyly. He was probably saving her the trouble of contacting Misa herself.

"Takayama-san? Are you busy?" Kirin's giraffe summon moved itself and Nazuna away from the window as Rezarick opened it. Before she could inquire if he wanted to get onto the giraffe, he leaped out of the window and landed on the grass with a thud, albeit on his feet. "-It's nothing, I just jumped out of the window. My door is a bit difficult to get out of at the moment, you see." Deciding that it was probably the best course of action as well, Nazuna quickly followed suit and jumped off the Summon she had been sitting on. Her now-drinking buddy turned to face her, delivering the news that he had successfully persuaded Misa to accompany them for the night. "You're not going to get hopelessly drunk, are you?" he asked Nazuna, a bit of tentative panic in his voice.

Well, she had no guarantees.

Author's Notes: I wrote this some time ago as a fluffy little piece. I was going to continue it, but ultimately decided against it.