Welcome back to Chapter 6!
Sorry that it took so long! At last it's done! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Zakuro, Taruto and Kisshu finished up their meals and parted ways since Zakuro was still there to do her work.
The two aliens wandered around the city for a few hours until it was time to go to the cafe.
15 minutes before openings time.
Kisshu swung the front door open "We're here!"
Mint, Lettuce and Zakuro were already in their maid outfits cleaning the place up with Pai helping them.
"oya? I thought Ichigo always said that you don't help Birdy-Chan" Kisshu says approaching them. Mint puts on a sly smirk "That's because I do my work before Ichigo arrives, she's always late"
Taruto chuckled "That's evil, I like it"
Pai proceeds to tap both of their shoulders "Kisshu, Taruto, put on your uniforms it's almost opening time"
"yes yes No need for reminders" Kisshu says dragging the now irritated Taruto down the hallway.
Zakuro taps on Lettuce's shoulder "and? Did you manage to do it?"
Lettuce's face flashed in different shades of red and proceeds to wave her hands in the air "N-NO! N-not yet!"
"what's the occasion?" Pai asked them
"Today is Valentines day" Mint answers "Lettuce was planning to give Shirogane some- MPHH-"
"S-Stop Mint-San!" Lettuce squeels while she held both of her hands on top of Mint's mouth
"what is… Valentines day?" Pai asks with a dumbfounded expression
The mews immediately turn their heads towards him "You don't have Valentines Day on your planet?" Mint asks. Pai shakes his head.
Mint proceeds to put down her expensive tea batch and pours in two cups "Valentines Day is an earth holiday where you gift the person you like chocolate. I already gave onee-sama my heart chocolate!" Mint blushed. She grabbed a tea cup and handed it over to Zakuro "here Onee-Sama" she smiles. Zakuro nods and smiles in return.
"oh, I see" Pai nods "B-BUt!" Lettuce stutters "You can a-also give friends chocolate" She answers
"But every type of chocolate has different meaning" Zakuro says.
"This is one cute holiday you humans came up with" Pai smiles
Lettuce grabs her bag and ruffles through it "I-I Also got some friend-chocolates for all of you. Here you go Pai-San" Lettuce smiles. It was a small package of chocolate cookies. Pai nods and smiles "Thank you Lettuce"
Lettuce proceeds to give Mint and Zakuro some too. Mint pops in a chocolate cookie "don't forget your special chocolate for Shirogane~" She teased. A blush formed on Lettuce face again and she shook her head real fast.
The front door swung open "P-PUDDING'S HERE NODA-"
"P-P-Pudding?! What are you carrying?!" Mint yells.
Both Pudding's hands were full of letters and chocolate boxes, so many stacked up that you couldn't even see her face. She stumbled forewards and collapsed all the letters and boxes on one of the tables.
The mews and Pai surround the table. Mint blinked "well well well, A-Aren't you popular Pudding?" They were all flabbergasted.
"These are all chocolate? Even the small white papers?" Pai asks grabbing one of them.
Zakuro shook her head reading one "They're love letters, people give them to their crush"
Pudding shook her head flustered "P-PUDDING ARRIVED AT SCHOOL AND PUDDING'S WHOLE LOCKER WAS FULL" she panicked "E-EVEN PUDDING'S DESK"
Zakuro snickered "Well It's bound to happen, You're also very popular at the cafe, I'm not even surprised you got so much" Mint looked back at her idol with a concerned face "B-But Onee-Sama this really is over the top"
Kish walked back into the room "woah what's happening here?"
Pai looked back at him "Apparently, a human holiday is taking place at the moment called Valentines Day, you give your loved ones chocolate" he says
Kish blinked "I- what about these on the table? That's a shit ton" Mint sighed "They're Pudding's"
"WOAH? MONKEY HAS GAME?!" Kisshu stumbles back, he grabbed one of the letters "They sure are desperate if you ask me"
Pudding shook her head "P-Pudding didn't expect to get this much nodaa" she cries
Kisshu snickered and wraps his arm around her "Hey hey, since you got this many you're not gonna eat all of them riiight? Pudding-Chan? If so can I eat some?"
Pudding rolled her eyes and snickered "Grab some Kisshu-Oniichan"
Kisshu did a weird win pose and snatched one from the table.
"What's this ruckus about" Taruto says approaching them
Pudding smiled "Taru Taru!"
Kisshu's happy smile deformed into a sly smirk "Tart! Did you know that today is Valentines Day?"
Taruto raised his eyebrow "What is Valentines Day" Kish clapped his hands "It's an earth holiday where you give the person you love Candy or Chocolate" Kisshu explains
"um. okay? What abou-" "LOOK HOW MANY PUDDING GOT AHAHAHAHAH-" Kisshu wheezed as he pointed at the table full of love letters and chocolate.
Taruto's eye twitched as he walked over "W-WHAT IS THIS- WHY ARE THERE SO MANY" he freaked out.
Mint shrugged "Apparently, Pudding is really popular at her school or so it seems" She sweatdropped
"And don't forget about what Boys at this age do" Zakuro says
"Ohh yeah that's right" Both Mint and Lettuce Nod in agreement
"WH- WHATS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" Taruto yelled
Pudding sweats "B-But Pudding doesn't get it either noda…"
Pai chuckles reading more letters "These letters are really thought out, they're so romantically expressed"
Taruto's eye twitched again, you could see the annoyed expression plastered on his face while reading one of the letters on the table.
Kisshu however was having the time of his life and wrapped another arm around Pudding's shoulders "So PurinRing, Whatcha gonna do with these letters? Are you gonna accept one of their love?" he snickered
Taruto's head turned faster than light itself as he gave Kisshu the deadliest Death stare Kisshu's ever witnessed from him
Pudding's face flustered "P-Pudding doesn't know noda-"
"That's it everyone" Shirogane clapped while he made his way into the room "Please clean this up, openings time is in 5 minutes, talk about all of this later" he announced.
Everyone nodded and proceeded to help Pudding wrap up the gifts.
A few hours later.
"HUHH PUDDING GOT A LOT OF CHOCOLATE?!" Ichigo yelled. Lettuce nods "It was crazy how much she got, It's like her entire grade gifted her a chocolate and love letter"
"Ichigo, Lettuce" Zakuro softly yells and does a gesture to make them come over.
"what's wrong Zakuro?" Ichigo asks. Zakuro points "This is what I was talking about" she points at Pudding spinning the plates on her knuckles and with one jump the plates neatly landed on the costumers table, they started clapping while Pudding did some bows.
Ichigo blinked "I don't see any difference" Zakuro shook her head "It's not about Pudding, it's the costumers. Haven't you also noticed that we're getting more boy costumers around Pudding's age while this is supposedly a pink girly girl cafe?" she asks
"OH" Ichigo and Lettuce say in sync "I-It's cause of Pudding-San!" Lettuce says. Zakuro nods "This is what I meant by Pudding being extremely popular towards the opposite gender, we didn't get as much boy costumers at all few years back"
Ichigo nods "that's so true-"
Taruto exited the kitchen "Ichigo, this is for table number 4" he says. "R-Right! Oh boy" she panicked while she took the food from him and went back into the crowd.
Lettuce and Zakuro look at him, Lettuce sweats "Taruto-San? Is everything alright?"
"What do you mean?" He answers. "W-Well…" Lettuce sweatdrops
"You have a really annoyed look on your face" Zakuro says.
Taruto was secretly listening along to Zakuro's explanation to the two mews, the more he heard the more annoyed he got. An annoyed feeling he never felt before, he didn't know what it was. It wasn't the same bad feeling he felt when Pudding told him about her mom, this was more anger than sadness.
Taruto blinked "R-Really?! Ah sorry I uh, didn't notice" he laughed awkwardly.
"K-Kisshu was just being annoying to me, that's all" He lied
"…Alright" Zakuro says.
Pudding approached the 3 with an awkward expression on her face, she was holding another chocolate box
"P-Pudding-san? You received another one?!" Lettuce says surprised
Pudding nods and she grunts "F-From a girl na no da…"
"oh?!" The three say in sync
Zakuro giggled "Looks like you got options"
Pudding shook her head flusterdly "NO NODA- P-Pudding is going to put this with the rest…" she says, awkwardly wobbling past them to head to the back.
Zakuro sighs "alright, I'm going to head back behind the cash register, will you help Ichigo and the rest Lettuce?" She asks
Lettuce nods her head "Ofcourse Zakuro-san"
"you too Taruto?" Zakuro says turning towards him
"….Taruto?"
"What." He says with absolute annoyance in his voice. With his Arms crossed he stared into the distance with a very, VERY mad expression plastered on his face. At this point he wasn't even trying to hide the fact he's annoyed anymore.
Then it clicked "oh.." Zakuro says realizing. A soft smile crept up on her face
"Taruto, go take a break, we have this covered" She says
Taruto blinked and looked back at her "uh. Are you sure?" Zakuro nods in response.
"alright, don't mind if I do" He says, making his way to the back.
Lettuce looked back at Zakuro with confusion "Why did you do that Zakuro-san?"
Zakuro shrugs "He was mad, it'd be bad if we let him go back into the crowd with that behavior, especially for specific costumers" she snickers walking off.
"H-Huh?" Lettuce says in response, still confused.
Taruto slapped himself mentally, he didn't even think about the possibility of Pudding already being with someone else because he was caught up in his own emotions towards her. If she was with someone else he wouldn't even be surprised, in comparison to him she's better than him in every way. She's bright and cheery, he's stubborn and hard to handle. She's always so excited, he's always moody. Plus he's not even human, he's not from the same race as her. And he was so horrible towards her in the past. How could she ever like him like that? That kiss from 2 years ago was nothing but a spur of the moment thing, he was sure of it.
Taruto was kicked out of his thoughts by accidentally running into someone at the back room's door.
"Oh sorry Taru Taru! Pudding didn't see you there!" Pudding chirped
"that's alright. I'm on break" he responds
Pudding tilts her head a little "Are you okay Taru Taru noda?"
"What makes you say that?"
"Taru Taru looks a bit upset na no da" Pudding responds with a tad bit worried expression.
Taruto shook his head "It's nothing really. Just a little home sick I guess" He lied
"Oh.." Pudding responds "Pudding can take a break with you noda, then Taru Taru won't be alone in there"
"T-There's no need in that really-" "It's fine noda! Taru Taru can tell Pudding about his day!" She smiles dragging him into the room.
At first Pudding was mostly the one who did the questioning and asked him what he did today but it was like she dragged him into the conversation with her, at a certain amount of time Taruto forgot all about what he was worrying before. She dragged him into her world of no worries, and he could talk to her so freely, so comfortably. She was the sun itself.
Pudding was off ranting about something that happened at her school, she was talking about it excitedly, Taruto unconsciously put his head on the palm of his hand, listening to her as a faint blush crept up on his face, smiling.
Pudding stopped mid sentence "…Whatcha lookin' at Taru Taru?" She grinned
"H-Huh?" He blinked sitting up "Well Taru Taru had a funny expression on his face noda" She says
"oh… well I was just thinking about something" He sighs "about what?"
Taruto shrugged "Well you're always very interesting to listen to, I could listen to you all day" He says nonchalantly before realizing what he said and slapped a hand on his mouth.
Pudding's eyes lit up.
The younger alien blushed, stuttering all over the place "T-That.. I uh.. l-looks like my break is over! W-We gotta get back o-out there ya know?!" He says hurriedly standing up and rushing out of the break room.
He rushed past Zakuro who came to check up on him "oh?" She looks back at him.
Pudding walks out of the room "Hi Zakuro-Oneechan!"
"Oh Pudding you were here" Zakuro says surprised
The wolf mew smiled "You look very happy, had a nice talk?"
Pudding nodded excitedly and blushed "Yeah na no da!"
End of Chapter 6!