Apt

"I don't see what you're so embarrassed about, I think you look cute." Nemu had only been here over night and she was already overwhelmed with the living world customs, sure a lot of things were very similar to her home. But other things were just bizarre. First there was the tv dinner they ate, two minutes to make a full meal was amazing and was something she wished they had back at home.

The second thing was watching television, it was just like the monitors in the lab, but something was definitely different about it. When Adellia explained to her the movie they were watch was made up and there was no such thing as the alien creature they were watching it confused her even more. Humans made things called movies, the people were actors, and the monsters were usually added afterwards with computers. It all seemed pretty excessive just for entertainment.

This morning didn't seem to be any better when she had to borrow an outfit from her "mother" and she hadn't worn anything besides her robes in so long everything seemed uncomfortable. That was her problem now, everything she owned seemed to be a bit short for even Nemu's liking and if her father saw how she was dressed he wouldn't be happy with either of them.

The shorts she was borrowing seemed like they could use and inch or two more fabric, and they were too bright of pink. If she looked at them too long they made her eyes hurt and was a great contrast to the simple white shirt she was wearing. Nemu knew she planned on taking her shopping later, and if this was the way everyone in the human world dressed she just wasn't going to be comfortable.

Another thing Nemu noticed was the difference in Adellia's behavior, when they were home with her father. She was always very quick, very neat, and always on time. But here they slept in to around 11 rather than the 6am wake up call they're both used to. She just grabbed anything out of her closet and rather than doing something with her long wet hair she just tied it into a bun on the top of her head. It took her under twenty minutes to get ready for them to leave rather than the hour is usually took her.

One thing was the same though, before she headed towards the door with keys in one hand and a cell phone in another. She took time out to pull up her long black stockings and put them into place. Nemu wondered if she thought her tights made up for the length of her clothing but she knew it would be rude to ask. "Nemu? Why are you so quiet all the time? Think of it as a vacation or something. There's nobody here to boss you around, and since Mayuri's not here for me to annoy you don't have to worry about his bad moods."

Adellia wanted to celebrate the small victory of getting her daughter to smile even if it was a small one. She knew she was going to regret wearing black today even if it was just her shorts. She hadn't had the chance to do laundry since she came back and it was almost summer, when she left to the soul society it was still pretty cold out so she had plenty of pants and sweaters clean. This shopping trip was for both her and Nemu, who had her only other pair of shorts on, though she had to admit the girl looked a lot better in pink than she did.

"Captain? Are you alright? You seem to be a bit out of it today?" Akon meant well, he really did, it took a lot of courage to ask his captain what was bothering him. Everyone in the lab noticed, everyone was picking up extra work, which seemed weird because Mayuri usually did the work of ten people in half the time it would take them to do one thing, and today he seemed to be at the same pace as everyone else. "If you need anything, I would be happy to help you…"

"Its nothing, my brats are missing, so I have to deal with even bigger imbeciles in their absence." It was true, not that he would admit it on a personal level. But he missed his two girls in the lab. Nemu was always a thousand times faster at fetching something for him, and Adellia always seemed to be able to have it at his side before he even asked for it. He usually kept one at his side, one or the either, it didn't matter they were both brilliant, and if he used them both at the same time, his experiments for the day would be done before noon, along with his paperwork.

Today had been a hell of a headache, he had three members of his squad at his side, just to replace one of the girls. Not only were they slow, and simple, but they were chatting. All of them, they just wouldn't shut up. Every time there was a mistake, they all blamed each other, and they even argued about who was his favorite. Sure he would have preferred Akon to these three but he didn't want to admit he was feeling a bit lost without Nemu and Adellia.

A long day following a restless night, he thought last night was a fluke, he woke up many times because he was searching the empty spot next to him. He would be embarrassed if anyone knew the great Mayuri had to hold a pillow just to get to sleep last night. This morning was just as bad, he usually woke up to Adellia stealing a kiss from him before running into the bathroom first, and since he didn't set any type of alarm he woke up late and it set him behind too. The stupid girl, ruining my schedule like that...