The Three Musketeers + Brief Snippet

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The Three Musketeers
Kotaro "Murakami"

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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Story: [The Three Musketeers]

Summary: Negi, Kotaro, Fate, Fate's harem, and Tsukuyomi all returned to Mahora, this is their everyday life in drabble format.

Genre: Humor, Friendship, Romance

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(Fight)

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Eva took a sip of her tea.

It was a nice day, much like it always was at her resort.

Another explosion shook the ground.

Television was overrated.

Sure, it could be a very good way of making time move a bit more fluently, but it really wasn't all that entertaining.

This on the other hand...

Eva smirked to herself as lightning, shadow and earth clashed together once more.

The three of them had long since outgrown the possibility of fighting it out in some random forest, mostly due to the fact that they wouldn't have any forest left by the end of the first of their regular sparring sessions.

It was actually quite impressive, they were still so young, and yet they possessed enough power to force even her to get serious.

Fighting one on one had quickly been rejected simply because it would mean that one of them wouldn't be allowed to join in until they'd healed up afterwards. So, instead, they'd come up with this.

A brilliantly chaotic free-for-all.

The result was very interesting to watch.

It was a wonderful day, mostly because the explosions that tore apart the desolated part of her resort never actually seemed to stop.

Eva was experienced enough in life to be aware of things that attracted her, and one of those things were definitely power. Power to wipe out civilizations.

The only reason she didn't drag either of the boys off to the nearest bed – or some suitable alternative – was because of the girls they surrounded themselves with.

That, and that that dog-boy smelled kind of weird.

She could appreciate a well-made doll, but he didn't seem interested, and even if she could easily defeat the four magic-users who was trying to get into his pants in their own way... well, he had a clear protective streak when it came to them, and so it'd hardly work in her favor.

Frankly, even if she hadn't already aimed her attention on Negi, she would've been force to do so sooner or later.

Of course, the problem with Negi was that despite her own status in the class, they would not yield with their stubborn protection until it could be proven without hesitation that he wanted to be hers, and only hers.

Eva took another sip of her tea as a mountain crumbled away.

To be fair, she could afford waiting.

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(Argument)

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"You're pretty dense, aren't you?" Fate took another sip of his coffee.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Kotaro glared at him from just above the tabletop.

"Kotaro, I don't think it's a good idea to hide beneath the table..." Negi trailed off, seemingly feeling conflicted about the whole matter.

"I mean that you're a clueless fool." Fate had never been the type to beat around the bush.

"What did you say!?" And with Kotaro suddenly standing halfway on top of the table, it just helped to prove that he'd never been the type that was difficult to provoke.

It was a miracle that the two of the them hadn't killed each other off yet. Then again, they were kind of hard to kill.

"Calm down Kotaro, I'm sure Fate has a good reason." That, and they were usually in the vicinity of Negi, who was always ready to act as a negotiator between them.

Kotaro glared down at Negi from his position, before sighing and taking his foot off the table, finally sitting down in an available chair.

"Why were you running away from her anyway?" Negi looked at him curiously.

"She kept on saying something about wanting to try out one of her theories on the usage of leeks..." The dog demon shivered visibly.

"'Usage of leeks'?" Negi tilted his head.

"It's an old wife's remedy of curing colds." Fate stated simply, though Kotaro was convinced that he'd seen an evil glint in his friend's eyes.

"Eating leeks, is?" The young teacher asked innocently.

"No. It's said that you should shov-..." Kotaro was quick to place a hand over the coffee addict's mouth.

"Let's just forget about it, okay?" His voice was unnecessarily loud and had a somewhat desperate tone to it.

"But what are you-...?" Negi was obviously trying to figure out what they were talking about.

"Negi, why don't you tell me what you and your class were doing in the bath yesterday?"

Negi suddenly became very quiet, a heavy blush spreading to his ears.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

Kotaro nodded solemnly. "There's your answer."

Having mutually decided to leave the subject of running away from very forward-oriented girls, they began to discuss more sensible things. Such as who'd actually be paying for Fate's coffee.

This almost resulted in an all-out brawl when Negi politely stated that he'd rather not dirty himself by paying for that terrible mud-water, the only thing that stopped it was that the young teacher had chosen that particular moment to accidentally seduce the barmaid and that she'd proven more than happy to pay for their drinks.

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(Awakenings)

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"Sure I can fight him into a draw, but what you're asking is suicide."

Yue looked at Kotaro critically. "I was just asking you to wake him up." She pointed out.

"That's what I'm talking about! Why do you think no-one signed him up for school!?" Kotaro flailed desperately with his arms.

"Because, as far as intelligence goes, he's on Negi-sensei's level?" Yue guessed plainly.

Kotaro blinked. "Are you calling me stupid?"

"I believe you are of average or slightly-above-average intelligence, for someone of your age."

There was a pause as the young boy allowed that to sink in. "This is why everyone keeps calling me 'muscle-brain' ain't it?"

"I would assume so." Yue nodded calmly.

"But that's not fair!" Kotaro whined.

"You can stand on par with both Negi-sensei and Fate in battle. It grows to reason that your intelligence would be compared to theirs as well." Yue elaborated.

"... I guess you've got a point... Still don't really think it's fair though..." Kotaro admitted with a pout.

"Well, it's usually said that nothing in life is 'fair', but we're getting off subject. Why won't you wake him up?"

"Because it's freaking suicide I tell you!"

"So you keep saying." Yue frowned a bit.

"Look, the reason no-one signed him up for school is because there was nobody stupid enough to try and wake him up on a regular basis! Including the dean!"

Yue blinked. "Why should the dean wake him up?"

"Because he'd suggested him attending school in the first place, and we figured that it was better him than us." Kotaro admitted with an unrepentant shrug.

"But it's almost noon!"

"Well... give him a few hours... someone usually drops by to leave a pot of fresh coffee by his bed at lunch..."

Yue looked at him for a while, searching for any sign that the boy was simply being lazy, before nodding solemnly.

"I understand. It can wait."

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(Casino)

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As the three boys had come to realize that they just didn't have enough money to get back to campus from where their adventure had taken them, and that they were still too physically exhausted after the big fight to try and get home without commuting, included with the fact that Negi had lessons to get to and Fate apparently had some sort of ultra-coffee delivery that he needed to accept. They'd come to the obvious conclusion that they were going to need money.

The question had of course been on how they were supposed to get this.

That was, it had been the question until they'd realized that they were in this one particular town in Nevada.

The casinos called for them, and so they answered.

Unfortunately for the answering part, Negi had quickly come to realize that he could not compare with Sakurako's supernatural luck, and that maybe he should simply sit this one out and hope that the others would do better.

Kotaro was seemingly trying to shake the dice into dust, hoping that it would make them more inclined to show the right number of dots, and failing quite spectacularly whilst doing so.

Fate, on the other hand, actually seemed to be making a profit. Though for the life of him, Negi couldn't figure out how. The expressionless boy was playing poker.

Negi had heard some people talk about poker, but he didn't know the rules. He was vaguely certain that it was a very difficult game, and the only time he'd come close to playing it had been back when Anya had tried to teach him something called 'strip-poker'. He remembered the event with a certain amount of dread as articles of clothing had been discarded in all directions, the only reason that he hadn't been stripped instantly for not knowing the rules had been because of a certain ermine being another player – and being very intent on stripping the girl, rather than him.

With this experience still quite clear in his head, Negi had made sure to stay clear of the card game, instead intent on trying out the slot machines.

From what he'd gathered, Kotaro had chosen the game in which the most physical movement could be made. In other words, dice.

It was probably not the smartest of reasons, but since he'd guessed that he wouldn't stand a chance in any of the casino's games, he'd apparently figured that he could at least try to train a bit.

Fate, on the other hand, had simply walked up to the poker table, sat down, and started winning.

Now that Negi had retired from gambling – instead trying to find a pleasant place in which to drink some tea – he could easily see that Fate was actually making enough money to compensate for their losses.

Somewhat relieved that they wouldn't be worse off than they were when they arrived, Negi tried to wave Kotaro over in order to speed up the process of making money.

After a few minutes, the dog-eared boy joined him by his table, looking not too much worse for wear – despite being substantially poorer.

Fate had attracted a crowd, and Negi found himself hoping that nobody would start trying to blame him for cheating, thus giving management a reason for throwing them out.

In the end, it didn't happen. But that didn't keep the casino from deciding that Fate had won far too much money than they were comfortable with, and that it wouldn't be all that bad for business to get a bit of muscle to ask him to leave.

Unfortunately, when this muscle showed up, declaring that it really would be in his best interest to leave, one of the burly men had accidentally spilled Fate's coffee.

The two boys had been forced to drag their friend away from the place before he caused any more damage. Negi had been chanting apologies as they'd run for the door – hoping that the rest of security would be kept busy with trying to dislodge the coffee-spilling man's head from the slot machine.

They'd made enough money for the day.

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(Valentines)

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Natsumi could only stare in disbelief at the occupants of the home economics classroom.

Everyone from Chisame to Makie to Evangeline were there, and from what she'd gathered, they were all there for the same purpose.

To make valentine chocolates for Negi.

There were a few exceptions of course, Setsuna and Konoka were on opposite sides of the classroom, decidedly refusing to let the other come near, making it painfully obvious that they were not making them for any lucky male.

Asuna kept her mouth shut about who she was making hers for, which made her even more suspected of aiming for Negi. And, finally, Chizuru and herself were planning on giving theirs to a certain wolfish boy they happened to be living with.

Giri-chocolates only, of course.

The collection of the class wasn't all that surprising, especially considering that this was the way it always was, and so the reason for her shock came from another direction.

The four girls who'd recently transferred into the school.

Three of them seemed to be dedicating themselves to making coffee-based chocolate, whilst the fourth seemed like she was trying to both make coffee-filled and normal chocolate.

Now, Natsumi wasn't completely uninformed, and she had a vague idea of why they were putting so much effort into making coffee to put in their valentines, but the way that they were making coffee was downright absurd.

From the look of things, either one of them could easily get a job at a café as some sort of 'expert coffee maker'.

The thought that not one, but four girls could dedicate themselves to their goal to such a degree... it was something of a humbling experience.

Of course, one of those four was clearly having issues with prioritizing between the receivers of her two chocolate-batches.

Pointedly deciding to ignore the fact that Negi seemed to have captured the heart of even one of the members of Fate's personal harem, Natsumi turned to her own work.

She didn't have as many rivals as those going for their teacher, but the one rival she had... well, she had very big-... uhh... she was a force to be reckoned with.

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Negi looked at the door in front of him.

He'd fallen behind with some paperwork over the last few weeks and had spent the night in his office trying to sort it out – he'd learned early on in his teaching career that there were a lot less distractions in his office compared to the room he shared with Asuna and Konoka.

Now he found himself staring at the door to his class. The crazily energetic class that he'd done enough pactios with that they alone could sponsor Chamo's expenses for the rest of his life – not that the perverted ermine wouldn't try to up the numbers given half a chance.

Negi had done a lot of training, and had faced many terrifyingly powerful foes, but right now he was seriously starting to wonder if he should really be putting so much trust into his normally accurate instincts.

Surely, it couldn't be that bad to open the door?

Gulping audibly, Negi pulled open the door.

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Kotaro looked at the boy in front of him.

"You look like hell. What happened?"

"Valentines happened."

Kotaro raised an eyebrow. "Who's this 'Valentines'-guy you're talking about?"

"It's a holiday, mongrel." Fate said calmly from his coffee cup.

"What the hell did you just call me!?"

The expressionless boy raised an eyebrow. "I called you a mongrel, you uncivilized mutt, why do you ask? Have those fuzzy ears of yours gone bad?"

"That's it!" Kotaro put a foot on top of the table, "You're going down, dolly!"

"Ah, Chizuru-san." completely ignoring the other two at the table, Negi waved at the older girl who happily waved back and made her way over to them.

After a politely brief hello to her teacher, she turned to Kotaro, who'd frozen solid at the mentioning of her name.

"So this is where you've been, Natsumi was really worried, you know." There was a small frown on her face to show how much she approved of him worrying her roommate.

The occupants of the table could only watch as Kotaro was pulled out of the café, looking all too much as if he wanted to run away and hide some more, but not daring to, less he truly anger the girl who was escorting him back to what Negi supposed was the scene of the crime – so to speak.

Negi wished him the best of luck, then he returned to his tea.

It'd been a terrifying day, and he hoped – quite desperately – that he'd see the next year's valentines coming. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to survive another chocolate-avalanche like that.

Either way, he knew without a doubt in his mind that he would have nightmares about this day at some point.

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The dean stared in horror as another explosion rocked the ground underneath his feet.

Someone had tried to take away Fate's coffee-filled chocolates.

This was going to take so much paperwork!

The dean curled into a ball and hoped that the world wouldn't notice him. Or at least that his secretary would give up on finding him and learn to forge his signature, and do his job for him. It was so hard to find good help these days.

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Chizuru watched the young boy as he failed to grasp just what he'd done wrong.

The sight drew a smile to her lips. It must be tough for him, men would struggle their entire lives without ever being able to figure out how the mind of a woman worked, Kotaro was ten, and he was already forced to deal with the infamous 'No, I'm not mad, why would I be mad?'-problem.

He was going to grow up quickly, of that she was certain.

Her fingers combed through his thick hair, making sure to scratch him behind the ears in the passing. Her reward for her dedication was a soft moan of pleasure.

As her smile turned into a grin at the thought of Natsumi hearing that sound and misinterpreting it, Chizuru continued to wash the boy's hair.

Negi had long since grown used to having his baths with the rest of the girls in his class – not that he still wasn't flustered, he just wasn't surprised any more – but Kotaro had never really questioned it in the first place. The boy was quite comfortable with being in the nude, and didn't really see an issue with other people being in the same state, he had however, quickly picked up on that others might not share his liberated views on clothing.

Chizuru was quite certain that Natsumi had played a large part in this realization, a thought that turned her grin into silent laughter. The two of them had bathed together on a few occasions, and during most of these, Natsumi had been very insistent on keeping her towel wrapped around her – the few times where she hadn't bothered with it where the times when she'd been about as mentally active as an average zombie.

Unfortunately, taking a bath as a zombie tended to have some complicated results, like ending up straddling the boy who was trying to keep her from drowning.

Ayaka was growing ever more suspicious that Natsumi's family was seriously messed up – she was quite vocal with what siblings shouldn't do when they were in the nude – and Natsumi was starting to give up insisting that it wasn't like that.

Personally, Chizuru had come to view the boy as a little brother, something which was quite ironic considering that she'd come closer to it as Natsumi – the one whom she'd classified as his actual sister to the class rep – was becoming more and more aware of him as a love-interest.

Wondering briefly if Asuna was feeling the same way about their young teacher, Chizuru got up and moved towards the pool.

Kotaro had, much like he always did, said something to her shy roommate that had resulted in a somewhat spectacular explosion. She still wasn't sure what it was exactly, but she was pretty sure that it could be solved if Natsumi simply allowed him to explain his reasoning behind whatever it had been that he'd said.

It was usually like that, Kotaro opened his mouth without thought, and Natsumi couldn't follow his reasoning. If not for the fact that they both worried so much about it, it would've been very entertaining.

Chizuru glanced up at the window high on the immense bath's wall, smiling to herself.

Okay, so it was still funny. But she did try to be a peacemaker... most of the time.

The smile turned into a giggle as she recalled the day's events.

Natsumi, for once being surprisingly true to herself, had made him chocolate. Giri-chocolate – alright, so maybe she wasn't completely honest with herself, but she was getting there. Of course, Chizuru had ended up giving him some as well – she'd been helping Natsumi anyway – and everything had gone smoothly until she'd opened her mouth and asked who's he liked best.

She had to admit, the boy could run.

The boy could run fast.

Quickly having realized that any actual answer to the question would be met with a negative reaction from one of the two girls, Kotaro had done the only thing he could. He'd run like the wind.

Natsumi might've teared up and run off somewhere – forcing him to search for her and apologize – if she'd lost, whilst Chizuru would've undoubtedly done something inventive using onions.

Natsumi had taken it as him not wanting to hurt her feelings, but Chizuru was fairly convinced that it was related to how he'd begged to be spared from onions when she'd finally found him hiding out in a certain café – the boy really should learn to hide in better places one of these days.

It was a little off-putting to lose to the shy girl so easily, but she supposed that was the difference between 'family' and 'lover'.

To the boy's obvious relief, she'd simply scolded him for hurting Natsumi's feelings, grabbed him, and then proceeded to drag him back to where she'd last seen the girl – thanking Fate on the way out for provoking him enough to reveal him to her.

Kotaro would probably get some sort of revenge on the boy, but she was quite certain that the expressionless coffee-lover would be able to handle it.

When they'd arrived, Chizuru had simply allowed nature to take its course. They always made up, one way or another.

Unfortunately, sometimes he only seemed to make it worse for himself whilst getting there.

As the young boy started scrubbing her back, Chizuru found herself feeling mildly jealous of her roommate. She might be able to spend time with him like this right now, but one day he'd grow out of baths like this.

Chizuru was guessing that it would be at about the same time that he started to truly appreciate being straddled by Natsumi.

She didn't mind giving this 'little brother' of sorts away to the girl, they'd be happy together, but she'd have to find some way to get him to give her massages from time to time. His hands were way too skilled to give up on without a fight.

Giggling softly at the thought of how Natsumi would react once she learned this first-hand, Chizuru decided that it would be best for her to keep it a secret. After all, pleasant surprises were the best gifts.

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A/n: Useless trivia: the oneshot 'Bloodless' originally came from here, but sort of grew out of control. This story was later kind of scrapped after I realized that I cared far more for the chapter that turned into Bloodless than I ever would for the rest of it.

Oh, and I suppose I can include a funny scene that's been stuck in my head for quite some time now.

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Story: [Kotaro "Murakami"]

Summary: Kotaro is introduced to Natsumi's family. Who are normal, by the way.

Genre: Humor/Romance

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"Umm... mom, dad, this is Kotaro."

How do you introduce the boy that has been living with you, that hasn't hit puberty yet, that everyone believes is a part of your family, and that you're head-over-heels in love with, to your parents?

Answer. Run. Seriously, why are you still standing there? Run away, seek amnesty in some far-off land and hope that nobody ever takes up the chase. Nothing good can come from this. Why, oh why had she allowed Chizuru to talk her into this?

Because you want them to like him.

Natsumi suppressed the small whimpering noise that tried to escape from her throat as her parents shifted their eyes towards the boy next to her.

Hopefully, they wouldn't disown her. People didn't really get disowned for stuff like this, right? Right? Why are you looking me like that!? Stop looking! I'm not a criminal! I'm not! Uwaah! Save me Iincho!

Natsumi wondered if she smelled something burning, and if that smoke coming out of her ears was somehow just a stress-induced hallucination of some sort. She really hoped that it was just her imagination, because there was just no way that could be healthy.

"Ah, eh, umm... nice to meetcha'." Kotaro bowed awkwardly, proving that he was at least very much trying to be polite and well-mannered.

Considering his wording, he was failing miserably, but hey, you couldn't have everything.

Unless you were dating Negi. That kid was just way to perfect for his own good. He'd get killed by women fighting over him before he even hit puberty. Poor kid. Really, no salvation for him. Let that be a lesson to all men, show character-flaws, otherwise you'll die.

Shaking off those thoughts before she got too distracted and accidentally blurted out something that'd get her hauled to jail – she'd never understand how Iincho could get away with all of that – Natsumi focused her attention on the two people responsible for her birth.

Take responsibility for raising me into a girl that can fall for a little kid! Dammit, that's not what I meant! This is just too weird! Make it stop! I wanna go back to Mahora! For another six years at least! Let him grow a bit! He'll be really cool! Sweep you guys off your feet! Totally awesome! See you then! Bye-bye!

Super-brake!

No! Talk now! No retreat! Charge blindly ahead! Like an idiot! Think Makie! Or Rakan! Think Rakan!

Blowing shit up is great! Negi fever!

Shit! Useless muscle-brain! Think Makie! Think Makie!

"Natsumi-chan? Are you alright? Your face looks a bit red..." her mom looked at her uncertainly.

"Uwaah! I'm in love with a little kid! Don't disown me, please! I promise I won't sniff his dirty shirts anymore! I don't wanna go to jail!" she started crying at the top of her lungs.

Great going there Makie. I'm so totally getting you back for this! Damn idiots! Don't infect me!

The three other people present reacted in three different ways.

Her father looked like he just fried his brain. Apparently, brain-frying was genetic, and she could totally blame him for all the times it'd happened to her. Good to know.

Her mother's eyes widened as she started glancing between the two of them, carefully measuring them with calculating eyes. See, definitely not from her side of the family. Totally dad's fault. Plan revenge at a later date.

And Kotaro looked torn between keeping her from bawling her eyes out, questioning her about that one part with the dirty shirts, and blushing himself half to death. He was adorable. She just wanted to hug him and never let go.

So she did.

Damn this idiotic Makie-mode! Damn it to hell!

Not that it was by any stretch unpleasant.

His dirty shirts couldn't even begin to compare. Totally outclassed.

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