Another chapter! Same excuse for being late as always, I just always want to have an AN and all the current reviews are self-explanatory. Enjoy!
Also, for those of you reading my other story, you may know about the Discord server I made for it. Well, I'm revamping it to suit this one too, so feel free to join if you'd like! The invite is CGvKdDw
Rito hummed to himself as he mulled over his homework questions, tapping his desk with the fingers of his injured hand, now free of the bandages and exposing the damage to view. His knuckles had split and now had raw scabs that hurt when he clenched his fist, but like this with the fingers spread, it didn't bother him, and other than a few small bruises, there seemed to be no internal damage. He'd be good as new within days, if even that.
The upstairs had been oddly quiet today, with no sounds coming from the door connected via Lala's dimension changing panel to the different rooms of the Devilukeans, despite all of them being home now. He'd checked on them, but Momo had just told him that Lala was busy on some new invention, as she'd mentioned when she had to leave all of a sudden at school, and Nana had immediately gone to sleep upon getting home. Normally, with Mikan distracted by her friends being over, the youngest princess would try to take the opportunity to sneak into his room, but surprisingly, she'd listened this time when he asked to be alone until dinner, though he had had to show her his hand to remind her he was still not at his best to convince her.
He suspected that they believed he was angry at them, especially Nana, after what happened that morning, but he truly wasn't bothered by it now. Sure, Nana had gone farther than normal with more of a hair trigger than she tended towards, but he'd spent too long around them to be bothered by that now. It was standard fare, it would be stranger if it hadn't happened, especially given Lala's tendency to waltz into rooms without any clothes on.
No, he just wanted to be alone to focus on his work so that he could then fill out the application supplied by Momioka. He had not been lying when he told Kotegawa that he had felt like he was freeloading, and Mikan already had so much to do at home while he did nothing but water the plants and play with Celine...and those things often coincided. She may look human now, but the child was still an alien plant species, so she loved it when he doused the flower on her head with the hose.
He smiled at the thought of Celine, by far the purest of the aliens surrounding him, even if her biology sometimes caused issues. If he could see the world like she did, then he wouldn't have this inner version of himself. In fact, the outer probably wouldn't exist either. He'd be someone totally different.
He blinked, stopping his writing for a second to glance at the job application. Celine rarely crossed his thoughts, being around her had become second nature, so for her to suddenly pop up in his mind while all these other things were happening, while he was finally growing up enough to realize he needed a job to care for his family…
...Was this what goes through a father's mind?
He shook his head, chuckling to himself as he went back to his work. He didn't know why he was so happy now, not after all that negativity from this morning, but he'd ride the wave of optimism as long as it lasted. He needed it, there was too much stress around him recently.
It's not your fault. You're the one getting beaten down all the time. Stand up for yourself and you can feel like this forever.
"Be quiet." he said under his breath, pushing away Inner Rito's input. He had made his promise not to hold back when he had something to say, but he was just naturally a passive person to begin with, even when he was a young child protecting Mikan from bullies. He didn't need to complain if he was misunderstood or if someone kicked him, because if he just made it clear in his actions, they'd know that he didn't intend anything wrong. That's always been how he lived, he had no reason to change now.
He sighed as he reached his arms behind his head, stretching as he finished his homework at last and leaning back in his chair to stare at the ceiling, sweatdropping as an audible thud came from the room across the hall...the dimensional door technically meant the rooms inside were not connected, but sound still travelled by whatever technology it used to function. Lala must have done something ridiculous again.
He grunted as he pushed his desk to slide his chair back and stand up, walking to the door and standing still, listening in for a few seconds to make sure nobody was leaning on it as he didn't want a repeat of that morning, and once satisfied, he turned the knob to head out.
He only got one foot into the hallway before he was hit with a low breeze as a pink blur rushed past him, and he frowned as he saw white smoke coming from the now-open door. It hadn't set off the fire alarm, so it probably was just steam, but what was that girl doing now?
"Lala-san! What are you doing?!" Mikan called from downstairs, and several thuds and the sound of the door opening, plus an apology shouted by the alien, told him that the human had rushed her outside. He glanced down the stairway, where he had to stifle a laugh at the sight.
Mikan's friends were watching curiously from the door while she stood at the porch, holding a hose to douse the hunk of parts that Lala had dropped on the concrete. "Should I call someone?" he shouted down the stairs, and her friends looked over at him, Kogure holding her hand to her mouth to stifle her laugh.
"Is it always this crazy here?" she asked as Rito started down the stairs, sweatdropping again as he held the back of his head with his injured hand.
"...No, normally explosions are contained to Lala's room…" he replied, standing near them to hold the doorframe and lean out to inspect the damage. "Lala, what did you do this time?"
"Hehe…Sorry, Rito!" the princess replied, her eyes screwed upwards in an innocent grin as Mikan stood next to her, in a combat stance with the hose as her weapon to attack the dreaded Unidentifiable Melting Thing.
"La-la-sa-n…" the girl said, her tone serious as she finally felt it was safe enough to turn the water off, though she still held it in hand in case of reignition. "Apologies don't help. It would be one thing if this was new, but this isn't the first time you've burned our house down! Why are you playing with chemicals again?!"
"But...it's not on fire." the pinkette said, tilting her head. "It was supposed to be hydroelectric, but I think I left exposed wires somewhere inside, so it might have started boiling...The prototype was working fine, I don't know why this iteration didn't work properly!"
"Nothing you make ever works as intended." Mikan said, sighing as she pointed at her brother. "Rito, go set the table. I started dinner, it should be ready soon. Is Yami-san coming?"
"Er...I invited her over when I saw her today, but she rejected again." he replied, and the brunette sighed, tossing the hose aside and setting her hands on her hips.
"Honestly, does she still think I'm mad at her? If anything, I'm more annoyed at Mea, or this idiot here." She pointed at Lala, who had bent over to pick up the now-soaking former invention. "Don't take that thing back inside, just leave it there to dry. Go wake Nana up and make sure Celine's not crying. Honestly, for a genius scientist, you have really bad safeguards."
"Aye-aye!" Lala said, holding her hand up in a salut as she turned to rush back inside, happy to avoid responsibility once again as Rito sighed, crossing his arms and shaking his head.
"At least you're fast enough to handle everything." he said, and she laughed, a nervous noise to blow off steam from stressing out over the problem.
"Mami, Sachi, you're still staying over for dinner, right?" she asked the two. "Even after this mess…"
"Of course!" Mami said, grinning. "We can't let Mikan-chan go so quickly!"
"Yeah, plus I want to know what Yami-san looks like. You're always talking about her, just as much as your Onii-chan."
While Mikan's face flushed, Rito waved his hand. "Sorry, but Yami and Mikan have been having a bit of time off from each other, so she probably won't be around. She usually shows up to raid the fridge around 2 am though, if you're really dead-set on meeting her. She's kind of paranoid all the time though, so don't surprise her."
Thankful for the change in conversation, Mikan nodded. "Yeah, she's still not quite lost her old habits. Odd, though. You said you met her today, but you didn't come home with any new wounds. Got lucky dodging?"
He laughed. "Nah, she just wanted to apologize for the umpteenth time about the Darkness Incident. We talked for a bit, then she left. Probably annoyed that the books she wanted weren't for sale."
"Hokkaido's a long way to fly just to not get what you want." she said, and he crossed his arms, nodding with an affirmative grunt.
"That's exactly what I said. Who knows what goes through her mind?"