CHAPTER 18:

WELCOME TO ANOTHER CHAPTER!

Thank you for reading A Not So Ordinary Life of a Background Character!

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

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Kikyo walked Natsumi all the way to her door, and frankly, it made her swoon. But a few seconds of awkwardly facing each other later, now all she felt was a mix of discomfort, panic, and embarrassment. She scrambled for anything to say.

"If you do not mind," the cyan-haired teen thankfully broke the silence much to Natsumi's relief, "Perhaps when Byakuran-sama comes to visit you, I will go with him."

"Please," Natsumi immediately blurted out because please, I want to see your face more. She cleared her throat in an attempt not to say those words out loud. In a much calmer tone, she offered, "And if you like, you can visit me even when Byakuran isn't."

Kikyo smiled at her, "I would like that." Then he bent down and kissed her cheek. "See you soon, Natsumi-chan," he said before turning to leave.

Natsumi could only raise one hand and wave at his back because her mind was still reeling from what happened and the subsequent blue screen of death it faced.

Almost robotically, Natsumi entered her house and shut the door behind her. She leaned on the door for a moment before sliding down until she was sitting against it.

"Calm down, Natsumi! Calm the f*ck down! It's just the cheek! A kiss on the cheek! A kiss on the…Oh my gosh, Kikyo-san kissed me. Kikyo-san kissed me. What the f*ck does that mean? Does he like me? No, wait, some parts of the world use a kiss on the cheek as a greeting! It's just a greeting! Or well, a goodbye but…oh my gosh…Does it mean something, or does it mean nothing? He wants to visit me more. He wants to see me more? So does that mean the kiss means something? What if I'm just assuming too much? Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-"

Natsumi didn't know how long her mental breakdown lasted.

A week later, Byakuran suddenly showed up in Natsumi's living room. The first thing she did upon seeing the albino was to look around if anyone else was there.

"Did anyone else come?" Natsumi asked.

Byakuran narrowed his eyes at her, "No. Why?"

Natsumi's shoulders slumped at that, "Oh."

"Kikyo asked if he could come," he said with an overly casual tone.

She perked up at that, "Really?"

"I said no," the albino informed her bluntly.

"What?! Why not?!" Natsumi demanded, a bit incensed.

Byakuran squared his shoulders as he yelled back, "Because it's supposed to be a Byakuran-Natsumi time! It was supposed to be a best-friends-only time! Why is he intruding?! You're my best friend! Not his! He can't intrude in our time!" The last few sentences came out more like whining than angry yelling.

Natsumi gaped at him because she knew he was childish. She just didn't think he was this childish.

The white-haired teen began pacing back as forth as he ranted, "You already said no when I offered to transfer you to Millefiore. And I didn't even if I really, really wanted to! They already put you in danger! Twice! You still! Still want to stay there! Fine! Even if that means I can't spend school time with you! And with school not with you and tutors and 'running a business' lessons, and with Sunday as your 'You Time,' the only free time we have left matching is late at night, and you don't like that either. So, now we only have my very, very rare breaks in my hectic schedule to meet up with you if it even exists, and you want someone else here too?! That's major disrespect right there!" He faced her and pointed an accusing finger. "How dare you?!"

Okay, maybe not that childish after all. Still childish, though. "I'm sorry," Natsumi apologized, "I didn't know."

"Now you do!" Byakuran huffed. "So no more hangers-on in our best-friends-only time!" He then started pulling her to her kitchen, "Now, with that conversation over, I want to eat your mac n cheese. You did make one like I asked, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Natsumi grumbled, "Then buttered popcorns and movies?"

"I want to watch all 23 MCU movies," Byakuran informed her cheerfully, "I told everyone to kindly f*ck off for the next three days. It's best—"

"—friends-only time. Okay, okay. So, in order of release date or chronologically?" the brunette asked as she grabbed a bowl of mac n cheese wrapped in foil from the fridge.

"Lemme think about it while I eat," he replied nonchalantly.

They ended up playing it chronologically.

Natsumi walked through a grocery aisle as Kikyo pushed a cart behind her.

There's a perfectly valid explanation here, she swears.

You see, Natsumi was already on her way to the grocery store when she bumped into Kikyo, who was on his way to her house.

"Natsumi-chan," Kikyo called out. He then eyed the large reusable bag containing more reusable bags hanging on her arm. He gave her a small smile, "I see you already have plans for today."

Natsumi's eyes widened at that, "Oh! Were you about to…? I could just go to the grocery store tomorrow! The sale lasts a week!"

"It's fine," he replied, "Instead, may I offer to help you? It seems like you would be buying quite a number of things. I could help carry them."

"You don't have to," she immediately demurred.

"But I want to," Kikyo countered, "It still counts as spending time with you." She turned bright red at that as she squeaked out an agreement to let him accompany her.

…and that's how Kikyo found out Natsumi's overenthusiasm about various meats and vegetables on sale.

There goes Natsumi's respectable image in the cyan-haired teen's mind. (Who was she kidding? What "respectable"? That died the moment he saw her wrapped up in her blanket like a burrito.)

Natsumi and Kikyo walked back to her house in somewhat awkward silence. Kikyo only let her carry one of the many bags full of groceries. It was also the lightest one of the lot.

Kikyo also offered to help her put the groceries away, but Natsumi put her foot down with the excuse that she knew her system of organizing her cabinets and cupboards. She gave him a glass of pineapple juice fresh from the can before starting. He tried to refuse the cold drink, but it's literally the least she could do.

After everything's been put away (in record time, too), Natsumi sat across the male teen.

"I'm sorry, this probably isn't what you had in mind for today," Natsumi apologized, head down as she nervously pulled at the edge of her blouse.

"It's fine. Like I said, it still counts as spending time with you," Kikyo replied, "Besides, we could still go."

"But it's already almost noon," Natsumi pointed out.

"It's perfect. We could go out for lunch," he countered, "And maybe a movie after."

"Uhm, sure. That sounds great," she agreed. But then her shoulders sagged again, "Are you sure you didn't mind the uh…detour to the grocery store this morning?"

"Of course not," Kikyo denied, "I like being able to help you."

It was a lovely date. A less exciting one than Natsumi's date with Skull de Mort-sempai but a thousand times more enjoyable. She said as much to Kikyo. Not the date with Skull de Mort part but the enjoyable part.

"Then I hope that means you're amenable for a second date?" Kikyo asked with a smug smirk.

Natsumi had never yes so fast in her life. Not even when Editor-san asked to publish their first book together.

It was a typical Sunday for Natsumi. Which meant she was in the orphanage, keeping two six-year-olds separated so they won't claw each other's face off. So yes, an average Sunday.

Thankfully, Madoka-san calmed the two down and sorted out their problem in five minutes (something Natsumi couldn't do for the last half an hour). After somehow convincing the children to take a nap, Natsumi went through the homework of the older ones before giving them their much-deserved free time.

"Natsumi?" Madoka-san called out.

"Yes, Madoka-san?" Natsumi replied.

"May I ask you for a favor?"

"Of course. May I help you with anything?"

"Fujii-san just noticed we were low on a few things. I would love to go myself, but a potential family would be meeting with me in half an hour. Can I ask you to buy them for us?" Madoka-san asked.

"Sure. Do you have a list of what I need to buy?"

Madoka-san looked relieved as she handed her a list and some bills, "Here you go, Natsumi."

The sophomore took the list and the money before scanning the list. On top of the list was kitchen stuff like cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, and such. But at the bottom, there was shampoo, bath soap, bleach, and soap detergent.

Natsumi was certain these should be available at the local grocery store, which was lucky because the sale lasted the whole weekend. She took advantage of that sale herself yesterday—a lovely time spent with Kikyo, even if not a planned one. The date afterward was also—wait, where was she? Oh, right. Buying some stuff for the orphanage.

Natsumi was on her way back to the orphanage. She managed to buy everything on the list, and thanks to the coupons she got just yesterday, there was a lot to spare from the money given to her by Madoka-san. She didn't touch the saved money, though, when she decided to buy the older kids some treats and bought it with the money she had with her. They had been improving in their studies, and she knew they'd be on the upper ranks of their classes without a doubt.

The treats Natsumi bought were nothing special. There were some packets of gummy worms, some cheap chocolates and sweets, and several bags of chips, but she hoped they'd be happy with them anyway.

She was very conscious of the reusable bags she was carrying. If it had been her own things, she wouldn't have minded tripping and roughing up her groceries. But it wasn't hers, and it wasn't her money that was used to buy them.

It was why the moment she saw something white flying towards her direction, Natsumi was quick to get the bags (and herself) out of the way. That "something white" crashed into someone's brick fence instead of her.

That "something white" turned out to be Sasagawa Ryohei.

"Sasagawa-sempai?" Natsumi called out, both in bewilderment and concern. But that concern seemed misplaced because the senior student just got right back up with an excited grin.

"EXTREME!" the white-haired teenager exclaimed before running off to who knows where.

Okay…

It was not okay. IT WAS NOT OKAY!

It turns out, the reason why Sasagawa-sempai went flying was because of a fight that broke out. And it was spilling right where Natsumi was walking.

Well, she was walking, but now she's running as fast as she could without jostling the items in her bags. But it was all in vain when Natsumi felt something hit one of the bags. It was a bullet, and it went right through the bag and its contents easily before it embedded in a wooden fence. She could only stare in horror as a yellowish liquid poured out, possibly even ruining a few other things.

Panicking, Natsumi gently set down the rest of the bags as she sat down on the sidewalk before removing the contents from the ruined one. Most only got covered in cooking oil, but the flour in a paper pack was undoubtedly unsalvageable. Especially when she doesn't have an extra container to save the flour that had yet to get wet from oil.

Maybe if she got to the orphanage fast enough?

What was she supposed to tell them about the ruined grocery, though? Sorry, it got shot? Natsumi almost laughed hysterically at that thought. Instead, she inexplicably started tearing up and was trying hard to blink it away.

There was a scoff behind her. Natsumi whirled to see Vongola Xanxus looking down at her, both literally and figuratively.

"You're crying just for some flour," Vongola-san stated, voice filled with unmasked disdain.

Natsumi went from upset-sad to upset-mad. She stood up abruptly and jabbed a finger at the black-haired Vongola's chest, "Just for some flour? Just for some flour?! That bag of flour costs 150 yen, and that's on 25% off sale! It might not be much for you, but for an orphanage that needs to make the most of every yen they have, that's a lot! And it's not just a 1-kilogram bag of flour either! It's that 1-liter of cooking oil that got shot that ruined the groceries! Which, for your information, is at 250 yen, and that's at 50% off!"

Vongola-san narrowed his eyes at her as he reached for something in his back pocket. With a superior sneer, he threw a ten-thousand yen note at Natsumi. It turned into a smug look when she bent down to pick up the bill from the ground.

No wonder the *sshole didn't expect Natsumi to straighten back up and, with the hand holding the bill, slapped his face with a resounding smack. She sneered right back as the bill floated down between them. "You think you can fix everything as long as you throw money at it? You crack someone's fence, throw money at it. You shot someone's wall, you throw money at it. You break someone's bones, you throw money at it. I'm not yelling at you, so you would throw money at me like every d*mn trouble you probably got yourself into. But I guess you developing some sense of consequence was a bit too much to ask, isn't it? Not when you got a family to bail you out of trouble. Every. Freaking. Time. Instead of them shoving some sense of responsibility into that brain of yours. Well, guess what? At least you got adopted, you f*ckwit. Some children don't even have that much." She sniffed at him in disdain before shoving the scattered grocery inside the damaged reusable bag picked up the rest as well. Before she walked away, she looked back at the black-haired sophomore gritting his teeth. "Add that ten-thousand yen to the fee for your therapist. If you don't have one, get one because frankly, you need one." She threw him one last disdainful look and then walked away.

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So I got my weekly summary from Grammarly. The top 4 tones detected in my writing was:

1. Sad

2. Disapproving

3. Anxious

4. Worried.

And yep, accurate as f*ck.

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My work schedule got changed from Monday-Friday to Tuesday-Saturday. Meaning, I'm changing my upload schedule as well. So yeah, totally blaming that one-day difference for the several days of delay in updating.

It's definitely not because my muse decided to leave me hanging.

On a more serious note, I tried starting writing this chapter, but the only thing that came out of my blank, uninspired mind was this thing below I typed in passing in my phone's note app:

Someone: Why is your pet so fat?

Dog person: How dare you?! It's not fat! It's fluff!

Cat person: Lol, ikr. Chonk!

And I wrote that this one awful night I got attacked by midnight insomnia. It was weird and was in no way related to NSOLBC.

So yep, my muse failed me.

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END OF CHAPTER!