Chapter 3: Panic in the Pub

"Hey! Emiya-san!"

I turn my attention from the repairing the broken air-conditioner to face my boss, he only really distracts me from my work for something important so I give my full attention.

"Yes Satoru-san?" I stand up to face him.

"Kobayashi is in again so you're on damage control."

Oh. I see. Aside from my day job of Handyman and part-time cook I have also been granted the role of 'Drunk Kobayashi handler' because I can at least reign her in most of the time she has a little too much to drink.

"Okay, I'll make sure she doesn't do anything too bad and that air-conditioner is busted, even a patchwork job won't fix it now. Wiring is long gone and it would be cheaper to replace the whole thing than it would be re-wire it."

Satoru sighs clearly not thrilled with the idea but from his resigned face I suspect he already knew it was on its way out anyway.

"Sure thing, I'll be sure to get a new one. Just get out and serve the customers."

I nod to him before leaving. Normally Kobayashi comes here after a particularly stressful day at work for a few drinks, now while I normally wouldn't begrudge a person their pastime it is a slightly different matter when they are disruptive in my place of work. Neighbour or not I will not have anyone disrupting the other customers.

I arrive in the front to see Kobayashi with Takiya-san, he's another regular who comes in although I've never really seen him a drunk as Kobayashi. Perhaps he's better at holding his liquor. With them I also spot…

'Tohru-san?'

I'm quickly noticed by Kobayashi who waves at me slightly and I take that as my cue to go over to them.

"Afternoon Kobayashi-san, Takiya-san, Tohru" I greet them and notice Tohru giving me a somewhat confused look so I decide to clarify "I work here Tohru" to which she just nods in acceptance before refocusing her attention on Takiya-san. Her somewhat hostile intentions are plain to see so I can only assume she thinks Takiya has untoward intentions to Kobayashi-san.

Well provided she doesn't do anything rash I can elect to ignore her obvious jealousy. I refocus my attention on the other two "I take it you'll want a private booth for the three of you?" at their nods I gesture for them to follow me and lead them to a little four seating booth cut off from the rest of pub.

I take out my notepad and turn my attention to them once "Are you ready to order now or would you like a menu and some time to decide?"

Kobayashi is quick to answer "A couple pints of beer for me and Takiya-san and… Tohru do you want anything?"

I look over at Tohru who was caught trying to kill Takiya-san with her eyes, I'm perfectly convinced she might actually be capable of that, before she turns her attention to me "Umm just some juice" I jot down the orders before telling them to wait while I collect their drinks.

Now that I think about it I don't think Tohru has ever seen a drunk Kobayashi. I don't think a drunk Kobayashi has ever seen Tohru either.

Shrugging of the novelty of the situation I bring their collective orders over too them. Of course Kobayashi orders a couple more beers as I expected but beyond that it seems she isn't going to be as rowdy tonight. At least I thing until my reinforced hearing picks up Tohru preparing to gut Takiya-san. At which point I decide that I should probably step in and move to booth which houses this little slice of madness.

Evidently I chose the wrong moment to intervene as I arrive just in time to see a drunk Kobayashi and Takiya ranting about…

Something to do with maids? Or goth lolitas? I look to Tohru for clarification but it seems she's as lost with this topic of conversation as I am. Kobayashi then turns her attention back to Tohru and grips her uniform while slurring her speech.

"Hey Tohruuuuu" she grips tighter and presses her forehead against Tohru's cheek "We're giving you some high level maid conversations. So talk! Got it?"

Poor Tohru can do nothing but apologise in this situation and I'm debating whether or not to intervene in this, although Takiya takes this as an opportunity to interject and it is at this point I notice his posture is completely different and he appears to have grown buck teeth.

"Tohru-tan those horns you have really raise your cosplay level too…" The poor guy has no way of knowing that Tohru is an actual dragon.

"I'm a dragon, so I don't know what your talking about"

Unless she just tells him, I'm already pinching my nose as Tohru's lack of discretion when it comes to her identity that I almost miss the next words.

"Strip."

My head turns so fast to the source that I almost give myself whiplash, it seems I'm not the only one who finds Kobayashi's rather sudden demand confusing and both Takiya and Tohru seem to pause at her.

Kobayashi raises her voice and makes the same demand again while moving to rip off Tohru's clothes and it is at this point I feel things have gone far enough.

"Kobayashi-san! No!" I shout as I rush over and grab her before she can rob herself or anyone else of their dignity, I manage to restrain her despite her best attempts at freeing herself from my grip.

Tohru is left looking confused and Takiya is trying to talk Kobayashi down while I'm left to wrangle her as if she were some wild beast.

"Let me go Emiya! She's underestimating maids!"

"Kobayashi you can't strip people in public!"

"Bring more booze and find some more maids Emiya!" she thrashes wildly in my arms for a few more minutes until she tires herself out and falls asleep. Once I'm sure she's thoroughly out for the night I release her before turning to a perplexed Tohru.

"Come on" my voice breaks her out of her confusion "Lets get her home, my shifts over anyway" I sling Kobayashi onto my back and try my best to ignore the burning look of envy from the dragon right behind me. I don't need to say much, one Satoru see's Kobayashi passed out on my back he just waves me off and tells me he'll see me next week.

We leave and I eventually start to worry that Tohru is quite literally going to burst with jealously behind me, I turn to her which gets her to pause and fix a rather heated glare at me "Do you want to carry her the rest of the way Tohru?" her personality does a complete 180 as she all but snatches Kobayahsi off of me and carries her in the same way I was with a rather pleased look on her face.

I sigh and shake my head at the display before continuing on. As we talk Takiya decides to speak up "Sorry Tohru-chan, Emiya-san. Me and Kobayashi like to drink and talk about maids, I don't really get a lot of opportunities to talk about them so these types of outings are precious to me."

"It's no real trouble Takiya-san" Honestly I'm reminded more of Taiga drunk spates at this point "it's just best to try and stop Kobayashi before she goes too far, had I not been there the situation likely would have gotten...bad"

"I understand" Tohru speaks for the first time since we left the pub which brings both my and Takiya's attention onto her "So I'll be surprising you in exchange"

Before I can even ask her what she means I'm greeted with the sight of Tohru transforming back into her traditional dragon form and I'm both myself and Takiya are sent into a state of shock, for different reasons I would assume as he is more shocked to a dragon and I'm shocked that no one seems to notice the sudden appearance of her.

I turn to Takiya who looks between me and Tohru before sighing to himself "We'll just say that I drank to much" I nod to him, that's probably the best idea. I look to see Tohru positioning Kobayashi on her back to make sure she is secure before Takiya speaks to her again "You really care about Kobayashi-san don't your Tohru?"

"Yes." She answers without hesitation "Although I hate you." with that last comment she presumably activates some form of presence concealment as she disappears from view, although it doesn't stop what I assume is the wind generated by her take off from nearly knocking myself and Takiya over.

"You didn't look too surprised by that Emiya-san" I turn my attention back to Takiya who's looking at me with a puzzled expression.

"Oh yeah" I let out a nervous laugh while scratching the back of my head "I've seen her like that before so I was more surprised she did that in the middle of the street more than anything else."

He nods at me and we continue on in our little walk.

"Forgive my asking but I never see you outside of your work Emiya-san, what do you typically do?"

I shrug in response "I don't really do much outside of work, although as of late I find myself giving housework lessons to Tohru."

"That's not really much of a social life Emiya-san. You seem to sacrifice your own time to help others."

I let out a small laugh at him "I just like helping people. Nothing more than that."

Takiya fixes me with a sad smile "You could stand to be a little more selfish Emiya-san."

I shake my head at him with a nostalgic smile on my face "You're not the first person to tell me that."

"That's good." His smile becomes a little brighter "It means you have some good friends Emiya-san"

"Yeah, I really do don't I?"

AN: We continue on in our slice of life.

Next time we'll actually get to the lessons in cooking from Shirou.

Next Update: Spirit of the Sun (New Story)