·~· Hiroshi ·~·
I can't believe I just drank out a man's glass… Especially Hiroshi of all people! Why am I getting flustered about this? He's just a normal guy who's my friend. Three other girls like him so why like him too? Thoughts dash through my mind, making me puff out my cheeks in annoyance which made Hiroshi look at me.
"Is there anything wrong, Histy?" He says, making me blush.
"N-no, there's nothing wrong." I stutter, taking another sip of my strawberry lemonade.
"Okay. Just tell me if there's anything wrong." I nod and delve back into my thoughts.
Why do I even have these thoughts about Hiroshi? I turn away from Hiroshi and sink into the water, setting my glass to the side. I shouldn't even be falling in love with him this quick. I mean it's only been five days! Five whole days! This is ridiculous. I hope nobody finds out that I like him…
Don't worry about that, Histy. Your secret's safe with me. I get interrupted Hiroshi's voice.
Hiroshi? I say, trying to grasp the situation.
Yes?
You idiot! Listening to my thoughts like that!
Payback. I look over him, my face pure red as he smirks at me.
I hate you… I pout but he just pats me on the head, making me blush even more.
There's no need to be that tense like that. Chill out here and just enjoy the day. We still have a lot more time to enjoy our vacation. He says, making me realize that this was, in fact, only the first day.
You're such an idiot, Hiroshi… I say, getting out of the pool, handing the empty glass to a waiter, who continues to clean and pick up empty glasses around the pool. Disconnecting my earpiece, I puff out my cheeks.
Dang it. I'm turning into a tsundere. I stamp at the floor and make my way back to the others, who were enjoying their drinks.
"How's everyone enjoying their first day?" I say and everyone turns towards me with a grin.
"I'm so glad that Vert won that tournament! I can't believe that the old top player is the manager of this resort!" Nepgear says, taking a sip of a glass of ginger ale.
"Yeah, it was quite interesting learning more about Glamour after defeating him in the tournament," Vert says, setting her martini down on a table.
"I bet," I say and I look at one of many big digital clocks spread around the pool. It read: 1857.
"I'm getting a bit hungry. When are we going to eat?" Uni says, patting her stomach, which let out a soft growl.
"Probably a couple minutes. It's almost seven," Noire says, glancing at a clock.
"Yay! It's almost time to try their food!" Nep exclaims and we all can imagine what the food is like if everything in this resort is over the top fancy.
"I'll tell Hiroshi about it. I'll be back," I say, walking back to the hot tub.
I find Hiroshi putting his can in the garbage as I walk up to him. "Hey, we're gonna be leaving to get ready for dinner now."
"Okay. I'll be there in a second." He looks at me and I nod, heading back to the group.
"He's coming in just a minute. He'll probably make his way to the room if he can't find us, so let's go?" I say and the girls nod as we head to the elevators to our rooms.
·~· Hiroshi ·~·
Walking in the direction of where the group of girls were at, I stop to see Neptune and Noire there, waiting for me.
"Where are the others?" I say and Neptune looks at the entrance.
"They went back to the rooms to get ready for dinner," Neptune explains and I nod. Noire starts walking towards the entrance and the two of us follow her to the elevators.
"Why'd you girls wait for me?" I say and they both turn towards me, pressing the elevator door closed.
"Why not?" Neptune says and I shrug.
"I have to agree with Neptune on that," Noire says and I look at the two of them.
"You girls are really nice, you know that, right?" I say and they two of them blush.
"Don't get your hopes up. We're not nice enough to let you shower with us," Noire blurts out, making me laugh.
"I don't know about you, Noire, but I might let him shower with me," Neptune says with a wink, making other two, Noire and I, stare at the Planeptune goddess.
"What!?" We both say at the same time, catching the startled Neptune off guard.
"I'm just joking! Don't be that harsh to me…" She mumbles and I sigh with relief. The elevator beeps, opening the door for us. We walk out of the elevator and open the door for room 306. Stepping in the room, we take off our shoes and I immediately rush into one bathroom, locking the door behind me. Taking off my swimming trunks, I turn on the shower, letting it warm up. Holding out my hand to test the water's heat, I turn it down slightly and step in, closing the curtains behind me as I do so.
Geez I'm still dizzy from the hot tub. I sigh and let the water run down my body. I wonder how Noire's doing. She isn't exactly acting normal. Maybe this is all because of the adrenaline from being excited to come to Hiyoshi. Whatever the case, I'm happy that everyone's doing fine.
"How much longer until you're done, Hiroshi?" Neptune's voice is muffled through the closed door.
"Give me a few more minutes, please!" I reply, quickly slipping on my boxers and shorts. Walking out of the room, shirtless, I find Noire and Neptune both wrapped in towels.
"U-um… Couldn't you have done that when it was your turn to shower?" I stammer, staring at the goddesses'.
"A-ahh… Sorry," Noire gets up, her face bright red, "I'll change back…" She mumbles but I put a hand on her shoulder.
"I mean you've already changed out of your swimwear so I wouldn't really bother changing back." She stops and turns around to look at me.
"You pervert." She smiles.
"You girls are so hard to understand at times…" I sigh to myself and Noire huffs, sitting down on her bed.
"Hey, Hiroshi?" She says, looking at me.
"What is it, Noire?" I say, looking back at her.
"Is it alright if we have your cooking for dinner instead of the resort's food?"
"Don't you want to try their five star food?" I say, surprised that she wants my food instead of even better food made by the chefs.
"Not today. I'm kinda craving something made by you. What did you pack?" She says, wandering over to my luggage.
"Ooh, can we have bulgogi for dinner today?" Noire says, pulling out a ziplock bag containing marinated meat and a ziploc bag full of rice.
"If you'd like. I need to set up the grill outside though," I say, looking out the sliding glass door which opens up to quite a big outdoor deck with benches and layback chairs.
"I can help you if you'd like." She says and I look back at her.
"Are you sure?" The Lastation goddess nods.
"You can help me after you shower. I'm going to start making dinner with Neptune as soon as she's done and I'll try to leave some work for you to do."
"Noire! The shower is ready!" I hear Neptune walk out of the bathroom and I turn to look at her. Woah. I stare at the goddess as she walks out of the bathroom, her long violet hair flowing behind her. This is like the first time I've seen Neptune without her braids. She looks at me and I blush, quickly looking away.
"U-um…" I stutter, and Neptune walks up to me.
"Never seen me without braids before?" She says and I shake my head. She gently turns my face towards her with her hand and looks me in the eye, "You don't need to get all flustered; I'm the same person, you know."
"Y-yeah… Sorry," I look back at her and she smiles.
"What are we making for dinner?" Neptune says, looking at the grill which has now started to heat up.
"Bulgogi," I say, opening the plastic bag full of marinated beef.
"Yum." She looks at the meat and back at the grill. "Want me to help you with that?"
"If you'd like," I say, pulling out a pair of tongs. Picking a slice up with the tongs, I spread out the slices of meat across the grill. Hearing the meat sizzling over the grill, I hear Neptune's stomach growl and she blushes, putting a hand over her stomach.
"I kinda just wanna eat it right off of the grill," The goddess says, staring at the cooking meat with hungry eyes.
"The outcome of that choice wouldn't be very good," I say and we both laugh. There was a pause and I started to lay the meat across the grill.
"Hey, Hiroshi?" Neptune says, breaking the silence.
"Yes?" I say, flipping each slice onto its backside.
"Do you prefer me without braids or with braids?" She says, making me turn around as she runs a hand through her long hair.
"Either way you look really beautiful," I immediately respond and she blushes.
"O-okay, thanks."
I nod and turn back to checking if the meat is ready.
"Can you please get me a plate for the finished meat?" I lift the bottom of a slice and notice it's just about ready to be finished.
"Of course." I feel a gust of wind and the next second I have a plate in my hand.
"G-geez, how fast are you?" I stutter, as I take the slices of meat off of the grill.
"Hmm… Normally I can comfortably move up to 580kph but now that I'm living in Earth, my speed got divided in half, since I don't have any shares." Shares? Oh right, she's still a CPU on the inside.
"That's still really fast!" I exclaim. I still can't get used to the fact that these girls, extremely beautiful girls, have the power to throw a pillow to make a dent in the wall and to be able to move at breakneck speeds. This'll be interesting to see how they can do during school, since even Noire mentioned them transferring into Ksugakari High in her SOS to me. I recall what she said to me back in the letter.
"I've found your high school while searching for a guardian and we will be enrolling for Ksugakari High." Was what the goddess had mentioned in her letter. This'll be an interesting year for all of us at Ksugakari. I think to myself.
"Welcome back," I say, smiling as she looks over my shoulder.
"Thanks," She responds and I realize that she's resting her chin on my shoulder, making me blush
"L-let's get started shall we?"
"Okay, what do we do first?" She says, looking at the tender, brown meat that I had just finished cooking.
"First, with these tongs," I hand her the pair of tongs I was using. "you're going to use them to separate the meat from each other and just lay it fairly evenly across the grill. Make sure you don't overlap the meat because it won't cook properly." I instruct her and she does exactly everything I say, word for word.
"Okay… So like this?" She picks up a piece of meat and gently lays it down across the burner, slightly flinching as she hears the sizzling of the meat.
"Yup, Just like that!" I look over her shoulder as she lays each piece of meat down onto the grill.
"Now that the rest of the meat is on the grill, you can just wait for a little for the meat to cook," I say and she sets the tongs on top of the plastic bag which used to contain the marinated meat.
"It's nice seeing that the two of you have gotten along so well," Noire says, glancing at Neptune, who was setting up the dinner table.
"Yeah, she's made things much easier for me, especially in the kitchen." One day, Neptune had decided to help make pancakes with Uni, so Uni had allowed me to take a break. That day, we had found out that Neptune was an amazing chef!
"Sorry, this was my fault, but," I grab the tongs and flip each slice of meat onto its backside. "Keep in mind when you're cooking, never take your eyes off of the food, even if you feel confident about what you're doing," I explain, watching the meat as it sizzles, the burner grilling the fat off of the meat.
"It's alright. I'll try to keep that in my mind whenever I'm cooking." Noire smiles.
"You know, Noire," She glances up at me. "I'm really glad that I was able to meet everyone because of you. Thank you for being the cornerstone of our relationship with everyone," I say, setting the tongs down. She blushes and I smile.
I quickly lift one of the meat slices up to find it being perfectly cooked. Placing each of piece of meat down on the plate, I cover the lid of the grill.
"Let's hurry up and eat before the food gets cold." Noire nods and hurriedly follows me inside the house, shutting the sliding glass door behind her.
Setting the food down on the table, Neptune walks over to us with the rice cooker and opens it, releasing a cloud of steam as it floats up into the ceiling.
"Thanks a lot! You did a really good job, both of you." I smile at both of them who both blush and look down sheepishly.
"L-let's eat, shall we?" Noire speaks up, breaking the awkward atmosphere.
"Yeah! I'm really hungry!" Neptune says, immediately serving herself a bowl of rice, putting a few slices of bulgogi on her bowl, letting the marinade soak into the rice.
"Itadakimasu!" We exclaim after we get our own serving of food and start eating our first meal of our vacation.
"Wow! You girls did a really good job," I say, taking another bite of the bulgogi, getting a nod out of the two as they munch on their food.
"You know," Neptune says, taking a sip of the tea that she had prepared for each of us, "It's really a miracle we met someone like Hiroshi, isn't it, Noire?"
"Definitely! Although I do have to say, I did my research very well and our life has been going much more smoothly than I had expected," Noire says, looking at me with a smile.
"H-hey that's kinda mean. Although I get what you mean. You never know what'll happen if you're trying to find something, just by judging their name and slight background," I say and the two goddesses nod.
"I have a question that I've been thinking about for a while, actually," Noire says, making me stop eating my food.
"What is it, Noire?"
"What do you think of us?"
"...What do you mean?" I say, setting down my chopsticks.
"I mean what I said."
"U-um…" I pause. "I think that you girls are my closest friends. It's funny because it also feels like you're my sister or something." I tell them the truth and they both smile, Neptune's more of a smirk than a smile. "That's how I would describe you guys."
"It's relieving to hear someone think of us as their equal. I mean, back in Gamindustri, we were always kneeled and bowed down to, being the goddesses and rulers of the land, so we ended up just relying on each other to feel as if we were normal people," Noire explains.
"I can imagine you girls struggling to be just like me, citizens of a city with someone ruling everyone. It must be hard not being treated as equally as your peers," I say, sympathising after hearing their story.
"Gah! I'm sick of hearing all of this serious stuff! Can I go to sleep now?" Neptune groans, standing up from the table. I guess even Neptune does have a little bit of Nep inside of her. I smile with a nod, watching as Neptune heads into the bedroom.
"I guess we can't exactly talk about this subject anymore, can we?" Noire says and the two of us laugh, taking the last bites of our meals.
Gathering all of the plates, I head to the sink and start cleaning the dishes that we used for dinner. Watching as Noire cleans up the table for any food that missed the plate, I scrub the plates with a sponge.
"Hey, Noire?" I stop scrubbing and let the water wash off the rest the soap.
"Yes, Hiroshi?" She says, wiping her hands off with a towel.
"How do you feel about me?" I say, stopping the faucet and drying off my hands with a hand cloth.
"I think of you as in a way, an older brother," Noire says as she takes the dish I had in my hand, drying it off with a towel, then putting it where it originally was from the cupboard.
To be honest, I was really happy to be classified as her "older brother", but I was also sad in the fact that she didn't get flustered and probably think inside that I were to be like her boyfriend or something. Grinning to myself, I watch as Noire starts to walk towards the balcony.
"I'll be out on the balcony if you wanna chat before we rest for the night." Noire opens the sliding glass door and with another glance, she walks out and onto the balcony.
Which girl should I go to? I think to myself as I glance at each room where one girl is doing piano.
"I should visit Neptune," I say to myself, looking towards the door to the bedroom.
No wait… I should visit Noire. She seems like she's expecting me to come to her. Looking at the Lastation goddess, she seems as if she's waiting for me as she stares at the clear night sky.
"Hey, Hiro." She smiles as I take a seat next to her.
"What's up with the nickname?" I blush as she suddenly leans against my arm, making me blush.
"No reason." She smiles and I gently rub her head.
"It's so weird how close we've gotten in the past week." I feel Noire nod against my shoulder.
"I heard from Vert that you girls were transferring to Ksugakari High," I say, looking down at the goddess.
"What about it?" She says, looking up at me in response.
"It's gonna be interesting, having six bombshells transfer into the high school that I've gone to for a year."
"Yeah, it'll be interesting but also amusing to see you trying to help us get out of trouble. Trouble as in guys confessing to the girls."
"Yeah… I hope it'll be as much as just them confessing and nothing more," You just jinxed it, Hiroshi. Nice going, you retard. I think to myself and she wraps her arms around mine. There was an awkward pause as the two of us just let our eyes wander across the deck, which behind the fencing was the city.
"Hey, are you enjoying our vacation so far?" I say, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, I'm really enjoying being with you and the others. It's been really fun, going to the pool and riding on the train with you." Noire looks at me with a smile.
"I'm glad you're having lots of fun, Noire."
"We should get some sleep, shall we? We still have two days to have as much fun as we can!" Noire suddenly gets up and looks down at me with a smile.
"Of course. I'll follow you inside." I get up and the two of us enter the building, closing the sliding glass door on the way inside.
~Author's Note!~
Noooo! I'm crying internally because I wanted Hiroshi to interact with Neptune so bad. I have to stick with the Noire route in this story ;w;