Got another chapter! Hope you all enjoy! I appreciate the support for the story. The reviews really help my motivation to complete these chapters even though regardless, I'd continue it. I've decided to cut out most of the villain of the day suitors that come in. If you don't mind, please give me your opinion on whether you guys would like normal slice-of-lifey stuff or more relationship-oriented activities. Honestly, from what I have planned, both will happen, but I'd like to hear what y'all like.

Beta:XenoTime39

A cute yawn found its way to Rito's ear as he awoke the morning of another day of school. Shivering from the unexpected closeness and sensualness of the sound, Rito got up to a familiar scene: a naked Lala.

'I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to get her to stop with that just yet,' Rito thought. She had slept in his bed for two of the three days of her stay and the day she didn't she had slept next to her tool kit right outside his closet. She had worked hard on her room, assumedly furnishing everything, and working out the kinks. Lala had told him yesterday that she'd be expecting to finish getting her room set up within a day or two.

'Ah, I better get ready for school. Now how to wake Lala up…' Rito wanted to wake up Lala differently every time.

'You know what? I'll reverse it on her.' Rito brought his lips close to her ear and then left out a warm breath, softly pushing air into it. Lala tossed and turned in response, still asleep. After a few more blows, Rito could faintly hear Lala saying, "No, stop Rito… I'm ticklish…"

Rito filed away that information for another morning and blew directly on her face, making her eyes scrunch up and then open, groggily.

"Ritooooo! It's tooooo earllllyyyyy! Come back to bed with meeee." Lala said, slurring her words and drawing them out as tried to draw Rito back to bed with her.

Rito turned his head, avoiding a full-blown blush at the provocative image that Lala was providing and said "C'mon and get dressed. We can't sleep in like we did yesterday. Don't tell me that you're already tired of school?" Rito asked.

"School?!" Lala arose from the bed, quickly and energetically. "What are we waiting for Rito? Let's go!"

Rito laughed at Lala's enthusiasm. 'Her enthusiasm is infectious, I gotta say.' Rito thought. "Also, Lala," Rito said as he covered up his eyes as Lala got up and out of the bed to get dressed, "Next time, maybe sleep with clothes on?"

Lala laughed and stuck out her tongue in response. "No promises!"

(-)

"So, what took you so long to get ready?" Rito said, teasing Lala.

"I'm not used to putting on clothes all the time! Peke usually is my clothes. If you'd allow me to let him be my entire uniform, I'd take less time changing. Instead, he's only my hairpin now!"

"Lala-sama, I don't mind being only a hairpi-"

"Peke misses being my only clothes y'know!" Lala said, interrupting Peke.

Rito sweatdropped as he could tell that this was unexpectedly a big change for Lala. "How about a compromise? You wear normal clothes when you go out of the house, but at my house, you can use Peke."

"Fiiiiine," Lala said, pouting at Rito's stinginess.

The two continued a light banter as they entered through the school gates of Sainan high until they were stopped by a commanding voice.

"Wait, you two! Cease your needless PDA at once!"

Rito turned around to see the figure of a high school girl his age whose figure practically matches Lala's. Her tone was almost overly bossy, but Rito didn't mind.

She was a friend after all.

"Ah, Yui. Sorry about that," Rito said, letting go of Lala's hand which made Lala frown for an instant.

"R-Rito-kun? Who's this shameless woman you're accompanying and why were you holding hands?" Yui said with a healthy blush.

Before Rito could get a word in, Lala introduced herself. "Hello! I'm Lala, a friend of Rito's mom," Lala said, using Rito's cover story. "Wanna be friends?" Lala said with sparkles dancing in her eyes.

"W-we'll evaluate whether we can hold a suitable school camaraderie later. F-for now, I'd like to know why you held Rito-kun's hand. Even if you were a friend of Rito's mom, that's unacceptable behavior for students!"

Lala thought about how to answer the question without giving away anything that Rito didn't want her to give away. A thought came to her mind.

"Ah, that's because we're dat-"

"Lala is still new around here, so I hold her hand around to lead her better. I apologize for doing it Yui. We'll be mindful to not do it while on school grounds. We've already toured around school anyway, so it's unneeded." Rito said, quickly coming up with a plausible explanation.

"A-ah. Make sure of that then. Goodbye for now." Yui said, walking away.

Rito sighed in relief that his explanation was accepted. Lala on the other hand couldn't help but feel a little pain in her heart at Rito's explanation. Not that she knew the reason why. Instead, she decided to move forward.

"Let's go Rito! We can't be late!" Lala said, walking energetically into Sainan high.

"Hey! Wait up Lala!" Rito said as he followed after Lala. Rito's eyes were drawn to Lala as he followed. Forming a smile on his face he caught up to her and took the lead.

(-)

Throughout classes, Rito stayed engaged with the teacher's lesson while Lala, who sat next to Rito, stole a look at Rito every now and then. Rito caught her gaze a few times, but Lala wasn't alerted to Rito's attention. Rito decided to not act just yet. And so, Lala kept looking at Rito every so often for all of classes until lunch came.

When the bell rang for that class' dismissal for lunch, Rito immediately acted and dragged Lala out of class. This caught the attention of Haruna Sairenji.

'The way those two are acting is very suspicious. Combined with their outing yesterday, it makes me question: Have I lost my chance?' Haruna thought. 'M-maybe, I'm just overthinking it.'

As Haruna's inner dilemma raged on, Rito pulled a curious Lala over to an empty staircase. "So, why did you bring me here?" Lala asked.

"To talk. Something's been bothering you, right?" Rito said, looking at her straight on as the two sat next to each other at the top of the stairs.

Lala squirmed in her seat at Rito's accurate assumption and muttered, "How'd you know?"

Rito chuckled and responded by saying, "Even I could notice when someone was looking at me that much."

Lala's already faint blush intensified at his laughter.

"So, tell me," Rito said, "What's eating at ya? I'll do my best to help you whatever it is. You know that."

Lala laughed nervously at Rito's earnest declaration. "It's nothing much, but I… felt something when you didn't tell Yui-chan that we were together. It wasn't exactly pleasant, I'd say, but it's nothing that I should bother you over." Lala looked away from Rito as she finished talking.

Rito didn't know how to respond. He hadn't thought too much of his actions when doing them, but at Lala's words, he felt ashamed of them. 'I have to make sure she understands,' Rito thought, 'I never meant anything against her in denying our relationship.'

"U-um," Rito started off stuttering, "So, you felt conflicted when I said that we were friends?"

"…Yeah. I know you wanted to keep our engagement a secret, but I thought that'd still mean a relationship. J-just don't worry about it Rito. I'm creating a problem that isn't there. There's nothing wrong with what you did."

"I fully disagree," Rito said at Lala's statement.

"Huh?" Lala said, looking back at Rito with widened eyes.

"I should've made it clear with you what I was doing by telling these things to my friends," Rito said. "I'm not ashamed of our relationship or anything. I like you a lot, Lala and I want you to know that. It's just… there's a lot of things coming, Lala. I didn't know aliens even existed until four days ago, let alone that I would be engaged to one." Rito said.

Rito continued, "I wish I could have the confidence to say to the entire world that we're together, but it hasn't even really sunk into me yet that we are together. So," Rito started, "Can you forgive me for not exactly making our relationship public yet? I know we're in this middle ground of showing to others that we are in a relationship but not explicitly saying it, but can we please take it slow with revealing it to others?"

'That's right,' Lala thought, 'I haven't exactly been thinking of Rito. He's a human who has had this life radically changed because of me. Of course, he wouldn't want to have everything change just yet.' Out loud, Lala responded to Rito's plea, saying, "Of course I can forgive you, Rito! You shouldn't have apologized though," Lala said with a tender smile, "I don't think it's either one of our faults. It was just some miscommunication messing us up."

"Then I'll be sure to make my intentions clear with you." Rito said.

"As will I. Phew, I'm glad that was cleared up!"

"Right. I don't like any misunderstandings to stay for long. It makes me feel uneasy thinking about it. Anyway, we should probably head back. We don't want to waste Mikan's lunch."

"Alrighty! Let's go. I have to say though, Rito. If you didn't want our relationship out there, I think that's going to be impossible. The whole galaxy has been informed by Papa of our engagement."

"That's right isn't it… Haha, I'll have to get used to that, huh."

"Yep!"

Before the two could get out of the stairwell, they heard a voice. "Students in the stairwell? There better not be any indecent acts going on or else some discipline will have to be imposed."

"A-ah, Yui. Nothing of the sort is going on, so don't worry." Rito said.

Yui recognized the voice and entered the stairwell to confirm her suspicions. Her eyes looked into his and red covered her face. "R-Rito-kun. What are you and Lala-san doing?"

"Nothing major!" Lala answered, "Oh, why don't you eat with us, Yui-chan?"

"I'm in a different class from you two so…" Yui said, trying to come up with an excuse.

Lala stepped into her personal space and stared at her with pleading eyes. "Pleeeeeease?"

"Sigh fine, I'll attend lunch with you."

Lala cheered and went in for a hug. Yui was surprised by the gesture and to Rito, she looked like a limp kitten in her owner's arms.

The three eventually made their way to Rito and Lala's classroom to find that their friends had already arranged their desks together for lunch.

"Huh? Kotegawa? Didn't expect you to eat with us." Saruyama said.

"I-I was invited to attend lunch, so I came. Is there anything wrong with that?" Yui said, sitting on a desk that Rito grabbed for her.

"No, I don't mind you eating here." Saruyama said, sweat dropping at the harshness of Yui's words.

"Good." Before Yui could open her lunch and eat a bite, a pair of wandering hands found their way to her breasts.

"Awwww Kotegawa-chan! It's been so long since we've seen each other!" Risa said, giggling perversely. Mio giggled, egging Risa to get friskier.

'Now I know why I avoided Rito-kun's classroom…' Yui deadpanned in her head. Responding out loud, she indignantly said, "R-Rito-kun, please get Momoika-san to cease her perverse actions!"

"Yeah, yeah. Momoika, knock it off. You're going to make Yui not want to eat lunch with us ever again."

"We don't answer to you!" Mio said, sticking out her tongue.

Rito sighed before turning to Haruna. "Sairenji-chan, can you please tell those two off for me?"

Haruna shook out of her daze at Rito's plea and said, "S-sure." With an almost too polite tone, Haruna addressed the perverse duo and said, "Please allow Kotegawa-san to eat in peace, alright?"

Risa's hands left Yui's breasts and the two went to their seats and pouted. "It's not fair to use Haruna." Risa said, complaining.

"Yeah, we can't refuse Haruna's adorable commands. It'd be like kicking a puppy!"

While Risa and Mio complained and had a back and forth with Rito, Yui addressed Haruna.

"Thank you for your help Sairenji-san. Your assistance was invaluable." Yui said.

"No problem, Kotegawa-san. While Risa and Mio are good people, they can get too handsy… a lot" Haruna said, blushing. "Anyway, I'm glad to see you eating with us! I've always wanted to eat with you, but you are kind of intimidating," Haruna said, softly.

"I invited her!" Lala chimed in. "When I heard that she was a friend of Rito's, I knew she was a good person that I wanted to be friends with!"

Yui was overwhelmed by the comments and said, "I appreciate the sentiments and I'm sorry that you thought of me as unapproachable. I strive to be a class representative that can be relied on."

"U-uh, I think that you're reliable though."

"Then what's stopping my classmates from going to me with their problems? Surely, you can advise me on this Sairenji-san since you are also a class representative."

"Y-You might look a little unhappy all the time. Maybe just smile more to fix that? It might make others think you're in a better mood and that you're open to solving problems."

Yui thought about the advice. "Like this?" Yui said, trying her best to smile.

"Yui-chan, that's a frown," Lala pointed out.

"Lala-chan is right. That's not quite a smile." Haruna concurred.

"Hmm, do either one of you have advice on smiling?"

Lala piped up, "Ooh that's easy!" Then, with a mischievous grin, Lala scooted closer to Yui before barraging her with tickles.

"N-no, not there Lala-san! That spot is… pftahahaha!" Yui said, breaking out into laughter, succumbing to Lala's attacks.

"Well, there you go, Kotegawa-san. Keep your mouth in that shape." Haruna said.

"L-like this?" Yui asked, still feeling the effects of Lala's attack. Yui's face, instead of the usual frown, morphed into a small, confident grin.

"That's a great smile, Yui-chan!"

"You did it, Kotegawa-san!"

Rito took a break from listening in on Saruyama's argument with Mio (with Risa helping her out by taking jabs at Saruyama) and checked in on the other three. Seeing their cordialness, he smiled. He was glad to see Lala, Yui, and Haruna getting along. 'I'm glad to see that Lala and Haruna are opening up Yui to others. She always seems so lonely…' Rito thought.

The group continued their conversations and lunch to the bell of the next class.

(-)

Classes came and went and so it was time to go home. 'We're not a part of any clubs like Sairenji-chan, so there's no point in sticking around.' Rito thought.

Unfortunately, it seems like an accident was going to throw a wrench into those plans.

A random student just so happened to be sitting on a desk, Risa Momoika's desk, and when they got up from said desk, it knocked it over. Risa, in her frightened state, clumsily fell off of her chair.

"Guah!" Risa yelped out as some small tears started to roll down her eyes. The desk had fallen on her ankle, seemingly bruising it.

Rito wasn't one to abandon a friend like that, so he hastily grabbed the desk and put it back up. Addressing Risa, Rito asked, "Can you stand, Momoika?"

"Sniff L-let me try." Rito lended her a hand as she tried to put weight on that leg.

"Guuh. No. I-it hurts too much to stand with that leg."

"Well, let's see if the nurse is still here. Here, get on." Rito said, offering a piggyback. Risa debated getting on due to the embarrassment over being given a piggyback ride, but she was injured, so in the end, she complied with Rito.

"J-just don't drop me Yuuki."

"Don't worry. I won't," Rito said, adjusting how he carried Risa. Addressing Lala, he said, "Lala, can you carry my bag?"

Nodding, Lala picked it up and was ready to follow Rito and Risa to the nurse's office.

"I'm coming too!" Mio said, wanting to help out for her best friend.

With that declaration, Rito replied with a "Sure," before heading out of the classroom with haste, followed by Lala and Mio.

Saruyama stared at the door and stood to leave. 'Damn it Rito. Your good guy ways are so intimidating to see in action.' Saruyama had seen how Rito acts growing up. 'Rito…You always act for the good of others without thinking. It can… make a guy envious.' Saruyama thought before shrugging off those thoughts.

(-)

Rito entered the Nurse's office, saying, "Hello, is anyone here? A student has an injured ankle from an accident."

""An accident". Wow, you're blowing this out of proportion Yuuki. It's not that bad."

"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be treated…"

"I'm here." A sultry voice called out. The form of a busty brunette mature woman walked in from behind some curtains, clad in a white lab coat over a pink top and a black skirt. "Now what has happened here?"

"A desk fell on her ankle. Can you please look at it?" Rito asked.

"Oh my, that would explain the bruising. Please place her on one of the beds so I can treat it."

Rito did just that and let the nurse do her job. After a few minutes of inspection, the nurse decided to wrap some bandages around the ankle and tie it off. She addressed Risa, saying, "Well, it would appear that you've sprained your ankle. Nothing too serious. It should heal in a week or two depending on if you treat your leg right."

"Thank you for your help uhh…"

"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Ryouko Mikado but call me Mikado-sensei." the nurse said.

"Thank you, Mikado-sensei."

"It's my job. Might I suggest asking you, Ms. Sawada, to escort Ms. Momoika home? If you gave her a shoulder to lean on while walking, it would put the weight off of her injured leg."

"A-ah, will do Ms. Mikado. Thank you for caring for Risa." Mio gave Mikado-sensei her appreciation before helping Risa out of the room.

"Would you, Mr. Yuuki, and Ms. Deviluke please stay behind. It won't take long," Mikado-sensei said,

"Uh, sure." Rito said.

"What do you need us for?" Lala asked.

"I just wanted to reach out and say that you two are free to come to me if you have any trouble tending to any injuries you get from the fights you get roped into. You're going to be fighting a lot of unscrupulous aliens in the galaxy after all."

"Huh? You mean, you know? About Lala and everything." Rito was incredulous.

"Yeah, I do. You'd be surprised at the number of aliens that are on Earth, living peacefully. Don't think about it too much or else you might hurt yourself."

"R-right." Rito said.

"You two can carry on with your day. I better not see anything naughty going on with you two, though." She said with a wink.

"Haha, we'll make sure to rely on you if we need to! Bye bye, Mikado-sensei," Lala said, ignoring the suggestive comment.

While the two walked out of the door, a notification ringed from Rito's phone. It was from Mikan. "Ah, Mikan said that my dad is asking for help at work again. I'll walk you home, but I gotta head over there."

"Can I come along?"

"Sure! I don't mind."

"Then, lead the way!" Lala said, excited to meet Rito's dad.

(-)

On the way to Rito's father's workplace, Rito was informing Lala about his father's odd disposition.

"What, he already knows that I'm an alien?" Lala asks in shock.

"Yeah, he's always been like that. Nothing fazes him, he just takes it in stride. Anyway, just prepare for the teasing."

"Teasing?"

"Y'know… Since he knows we're together."

"Oh! That's a relief!" she said, grabbing Rito's hand.

Rito acted like he was unfazed by Lala's action, but a light blush on his face would tell a different story. "Anyway, we're here." Rito said, pointing at an apartment building where his father's room was. From the outside, it looked normal.

The inside, however, was filled with paper, boxes, and manga. Rito and Lala had let themselves in with the key that Rito had been given by his dad. Seeing that his father was distracted with his work, Rito called out, "I'm here to help, dad!"

"Oh, Rito?" a rough voice called out. A tall, chiseled man with a bandana on his head that spelled out "big haul" in kanji arrived at the doorway. "Ah, and you must be Lala-chan. Mikan has told me a lot about you."

"It's nice to meet you Rito-papa!"

"It's nice to meet you too! I'd ask you what being an alien is like, but I'm on a deadline hahaha!" Rito's father said with an easy-going laugh. "Can you draw though?" he said, quickly turning to a serious expression.

"Hehe, nope. I'm more of an inventing-type of person."

"Ah, what a shame. I hope you'll be able to show me your inventions later, but like I said, I'm on a deadline. C'mon, Rito. Let's get to work!"

"Alright, alright."

Rito's father, or as Lala learned later: Saibai Yuuki, was a famous mangaka with multiple stories that were all ongoing, leading to deadlines being a big pain for himself and his assistants.

"Wow, Rito! You can draw?" Lala asked, surprised by his talent.

"Yeah. I've been helping out my dad since I was young, so I learned how to draw from it, I guess." Rito said as he sketched out a panel. "Hey, I didn't think this through when I brought you here. Are you fine watching?"

"Yep! It's fun to see you so focused!" Lala said, enthusiastically.

Blushing a bit from the critical attack that is Lala's boundless enthusiasm, Rito looked away from her and drew out what the plans for the page said.

"Hey, hey. Lay off the flirting! There's work to be done!" yelled out Rito's dad from across the room.

"You couldn't even hear what we were talking about from over there! How about you get back to work dad! You can tease us after you're in the clear!" yelled back Rito, who didn't look away from the page as he worked.

Papers were thrown out after a few sounds of sketching was heard. It was obvious from the site of things that Rito and his dad were more skilled at drawing than the assistants present… or at least, they were faster.

As Rito worked, Lala quietly cheered him on for the hours of work until they were finally finished.

(-)

The dead expression of the assistants showed their energy levels after finishing a deadline with Rito's dad.

Rito's dad waved them out with a hard pat on the back, each which made all of them fall over at the entrance of the apartment.

He closed the door after them and turned to his son and son's girlfriend. "Phew, that was close as usual. That really got the adrenaline going, huh."

"Dad, only you could like the amount of stress that is built up from those deadlines. Anyway, it's late. I think Lala and I are going to head back."

"Hold it, Hold it. I haven't gotten in any teasing yet!"

"I'm too tired to deal with it, ok!"

"Oh c'mon! I've heard you two have been sleeping in the same bed together. I just hope you two are keeping proper boundaries. I don't want to be a grandpa just yet."

Rito and Lala's faces turned bright red at that comment, making Saibai laugh hard.

"W-we prolly won't go that far... yet," Lala said, looking expectedly at Rito.

Sighing to calm himself down, he said to his father, "We're taking things slow, alright? We haven't even known each other for that long and even though we're pretty in love with each other, there's a lot of things that we're trying to work out just day to day."

"Geez, so serious," pouted Saibai. "Anyway, you two can go on back now. I've had my fun."

As Rito turned to leave, his father grabbed him for a second and whispered something into his ear. "She's a keeper alright. I was looking over at you every once and a while and her gaze didn't leave the back of your head. Don't screw it up." Rito's father let him go after that comment.

The two were walking on the road home when Lala asked, "What did your dad say to you?"

Blushing, he said, "It's a secret." In his head, he thought, "I don't intend to screw this up.' Watching Lala's expression turn from curious to content, Rito thought, "Not ever.'