Welcome to the seventh chapter of Troublesome Brats!

I apologise for being tardy and useless and disappointing to all you readers. Life decided to kick me in the balls and squeeze 'em real hard. But enough about me. Oh yeah, I have not written anything in a while, so expect this chapter to be rough around the edges.

Reviews!

Frank Horrigan: W-Well, you go do that.

EpicLinkSam: Indeed she did. Young children can be surprisingly cruel and sinister in their own way. And yeah, I might take those offered ideas. As always, thank you.

InfernoRage: I'm glad you had a good time!

Atlas Ultima: I know right? And yeah, I'll try to add in more crossover moments in Troublesome Brats. And I'm glad that you're enjoying the story so far!

Gerard Sta Maria Terumi 310: Thank you, thank you. I try my best. And yeah, good to see that you're also enjoying the story so far.

Now, let's read!

I own nothing.

-IIXII-

A nuclear explosion. Inside his head.

That was how it felt like when he slowly opened his eyes, and the bright light coming from the nearby windows were absolutely not helping. In fact, it made him feel all the more worse than before.

"Ugh. My damn head...feels like it's not intact anymore." Terumi allowed his eyes to close themselves once more so that the light would stop assaulting them, groaning painfully as he sat himself up. He wasn't on his bed, he noted. Instead, he was on a couch.

A very familiar couch.

"What the hell happened last night? My memory is all...blurry and shit." Terumi brought a hand to his face and started rubbing his temples with the intention of chasing away his headache, though it was barely working. "Why can't I remember?" he muttered.

"Ah, you're awake," a voice said.

Terumi braced himself and opened his eyes, wincing when the light began assaulting his eyes just like it did moments ago. He blinked a couple of times to clear his vision, and was later greeted with the sight of a smiling Summer Rose. "You..." He took note of the tray in her hands. The woman wanted to offer him some tea and cookies, it seemed. Though, that was the last thing on his mind right now. "Mind telling me what happened last night?"

Summer's smile grew sheepish. "Well, about that..." she started.

Terumi narrowed his eyes at the sudden change in her behavior. "The last thing I remember was..."

And just like that, as quick as lightning, an image of Summer's white underwear appeared inside his head.

Terumi's face went as blank as a whiteboard in an instant. "Ah. Y'know what? I take it back. Don't tell me."

Summer blushed a bit upon noticing the look he had on his face, figuring that he at least knew the gist of the events which transpired last night. She quickly moved her gaze to the side, eyes closed due to embarrassment. "Yang told me everything, s-so...I guess I should apologise for what I did to you last night," she said.

"In that case, you can start apologising by letting me rest." Terumi laid back down onto the comfortable couch, closing his eyes as he did so. "I'm beat. That being said, where's Kazuma and what time is it?" he inquired.

"Oh. Well, he's sleeping in the guest room. And for some reason," Summer giggled. "the girls have grown quite attached to him, seeing that they are sleeping in the same room with him right now. You sure did a wonderful job at raising a true gentleman, Terumi."

Terumi's face darkened. "Have to admit that I had a little help..." he muttered.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Summer asked, staring at him with confusion written across her face.

But instead of answering, Terumi had other plans. He quickly turned away just so he could avoid the topic. "It's nothing. Now what time is it?"

Summer knelt down and set the tray down onto the table, pouring out some tea into one of the cups with a friendly smile on her face. "It's around 11 AM, Terumi," she said. "You've gotten hit pretty hard last night, it seems."

Terumi rolled his eyes, not that she was able to see it anyway. "Your fault," he muttered. "If you weren't my employer, then you'd probably be in a hospital right about now."

"Hey, at least I'm apologising." Summer pouted, completely ignoring the man's obvious threat to her very safety. She poured in some tea for herself and took a small sip, smiling with satisfaction soon after. "You're welcome to try my tea if you'd like," she said, taking a seat on one of the chairs. "As well as the cookies. I made them myself."

"I'm not..." His stomach chose that particular moment to growl, much to his absolute annoyance. "...hungry."

Summer giggled, a knowing look in her eyes. "I can clearly see that your body is denying your words, Terumi. Come on, sit up and have breakfast with me," she said, her smile widening. "Your tea is going to get cold if you leave it like that."

Clicking his tongue, Terumi sat himself up and turned to Summer. "Yeah yeah, whatever." The smell of tea as well as the sight of cookies made his stomach growl louder, but despite that he managed to restrain himself from eating like a starving animal. He had table manners too, but unfortunately not a lot of people were aware of that little fact.

"Go on," Summer encouraged, smiling. "No need to be shy now."

Terumi, being himself, set his chin down onto the palm of his hand with his eyes focused elsewhere, while his other free hand was in the process of reaching out for a cookie or two. "Don't expect me to say thank you or anything," he grumbled.

Summer chuckled, amused. "You just did," she pointed out.

"You know what I mean." Cookie in hand, Terumi brought it up to his mouth and took a large bite. His eyes widened somewhat. It tasted...good, though he wouldn't admit it out loud. There was no way he could-

"So how does it taste?" Summer asked, excitement evident in her eyes.

Shit.

Terumi stared at Summer with a blank look as he kept crunching the cookie pieces in his mouth, and the reason why he was doing it so slowly was so that he could come up with something that's not half-assed. He was trying his best to come up with something, truly he did, but those pair of excited eyes really didn't make things any easier for him.

So in the end, all he could come up was...

"It's...it's decent enough, I guess."

He took note of the sudden silence which followed, and immediately winced.

Shit. I knew I wasn't-

"You...really think so?"

"Eh?" Terumi focused his full attention on Summer, confusion evident in his eyes. "Of course. I mean, why am I eating it then?"

Summer grinned sheepishly, scratching her cheek as she did so. "It's just that...you didn't look like you were enjoying it. Was I wrong?" she asked.

Eh? And with that, Terumi nearly choked on his own spit. Of course! he internally exclaimed. I was so focused on not trying to sound like an ass that I failed to maintain my stoic mask! She must have misunderstood things the moment she saw my thinking face. Ugh. This is going to be a pain.

"Terumi?" Summer tilted her head to one side, gazing at him. "Are you feeling well? You're spacing out there."

"Huh? Ah, yeah!" Terumi brought a hand to the back of his neck and cleared his throat, allowing his eyes to wander to the side for no actual reason. "Well, you were wrong. Kinda. I was actually trying my best to come up with something without making me sound like an ass, but in the end my thinking face made you misunderstand things." He took another bite from the cookie in his hand, eyes closing. "So anyway, it's good. End of story," he said.

Summer, who had been surprised at the fact that she easily misunderstood the situation, brought a hand to her mouth and giggled. "Good? But don't you mean...'decent'?" she said in a playful manner, grinning.

Terumi simply shrugged in return. "Whichever works."

Summer couldn't help but giggle again. "Anyway," she began. "since we're here talking, I was actually hoping that, after we're done with breakfast, you would be willing enough to follow me around to the nearest grocery store?"

Terumi blinked. "Eh?"

"I mean, we'll be able to get to know each other better this way," said Summer, smiling that sweet and innocent smile of hers. "I need to buy ingredients for today's dinner. So, what do you say?"

Terumi stared at her. "Um…"

-IIXII-

How did things end up like this?

"Terumi, could you hand me over one of those cereals? I promised Ruby that I'd buy her one."

Terumi accepted his employer's request and handed her one of the healthy cereals he had been staring at for the past few minutes, despite his mind being occupied by thoughts such as What the hell am I doing here? as well as Shouldn't I be sleeping?

Clearly, Terumi had a lot going on inside his mind.

Summer stared at him. "Terumi?"

"Eh?" Terumi brought himself back to reality, and only then did he realise that he was not letting go of the cereal box which he was supposed to be handing over to Summer. He quickly retracted his hand and walked ahead, before saying, "So what's next on the list for tonight's dinner?"

"Turkey." Summer placed the cereal box somewhere inside the shopping basket she was carrying, and when she turned to her employee, she found herself staring at his expression. "What?" she asked, puzzled.

"Turkey?" Terumi questioned. Though before Summer could answer, he shook his head and walked ahead. "Wow. I honestly wasn't expecting that."

"Well, Ruby and I have to at least eat one turkey once every two weeks. It's a family thing, you see," Summer explained, smiling when the past memories of her daughter and herself having fun together at dinner came flooding inside her mind. "And don't be surprised when I say that Ruby is able to finish off more than half of a turkey all by herself. I've seen it firsthand."

"Really impressive." Terumi rolled his eyes. The only things Kval and I were able to afford to eat in the past were boiled eggs and instant noodles. It's really annoying when you keep rubbing my face with the fact that you're both luckier than we are in life. He turned his head towards Summer. "Speaking of turkeys, why don't we just-"

"Oof!"

Terumi immediately backed away, the expression on his face changing from stoic to extreme hostile in the span of half a second. "Hey! Watch where you're going, you blind asshat!" he yelled, much to Summer's chagrin.

"I-I uh…" The person, who obviously had been fiddling with her phone and not looking at her surroundings judging by the fact that she was wearing headphones, shrunk under Terumi's gaze and started to fidget. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Well don't just say sorry! Fuck off!" Terumi narrowed his eyes, the look on his face growing more hostile by the second. He flicked the girl in the forehead and bared his fangs. "Stay here any longer, and I might just have to remove you. Brutally."

And with that, the girl turned and ran while holding in the urge to scream. She was on the verge of crying too, Summer noted.

"People these days…" Terumi muttered.

Summer gave her employee a disapproving look. "Did you really have to-"

"Yeah yeah, I had to. Now, come on." Terumi grabbed Summer's basket and went off to find the largest turkey available inside the grocery store, much to Summer's annoyance at the fact that he was not even trying to listen to her.

"You really need to work on your temper there," Summer sounded, and was quite annoyed to find herself getting ignored. "If you keep this up, then people will-"

"What, find me annoying?" Terumi muttered, surprising Summer with the tone he was using. He sounded calm, and yet the emotions hidden behind it was…different. "Don't concern yourself with that. Just look around you."

Huh? What does he mean? Summer did as she was told and looked around. And only then did she notice the fear and hatred on the faces of countless of people around them, all of them directed at a certain yellow cloak-wearing someone. She made a puzzled face. Why are they looking at him like that? Summer found herself asking that question internally. There must be some reason. Am I missing something here?

"Judging by that determined look you have on your face, I'm guessing that you're trying to find a logical reason to why I'm being glared at by many," Terumi said. He ignored Summer's reaction to his words, and instead focused his full attention on all of the available turkeys in the meat area of the store. Despite knowing that it was not him who was going to be eating the delicious turkey they were planning on buying for dinner, he still wanted the largest one available so one else could have it. It was a bad habit of his, apparently. "If so, then don't bother. You're just wasting your time."

"Hmm…" Summer squinted her eyes. "You know, something has been bugging my mind ever since we've first met."

Terumi raised a single eyebrow, somewhat intrigued at where this was going, but he still kept his eyes on the turkeys, however. "What is it?"

Summer folded her arms. "Have we met before somewhere?"

Terumi spared Summer a brief glance. He then picked up the largest turkey he was able to find and placed it inside his shopping basket, then decided to move along. "I'm surprised. It seems that I wasn't the only one after all," he said.

Summer's eyes widened at that, albeit slightly. "Really? Doesn't it bother you?"

Terumi shrugged. "Not really. Anyway, what is next on our list?" He turned away and was about to walk off, but the sudden pulling of his sleeve prevented him from doing so. No doubt it was Summer.

"Let's be serious here," Summer said.

Terumi turned to look at her from the corner of his eyes, before turning away once more to avoid those dangerous silver orbs. He grumbled something, before loudly saying, "I'll start getting serious about this once I start remembering. Now, can we just please move on to the next item?"

Summer pouted. Figuring that it was hopeless to get anything out of him at the moment, she sighed and released Terumi's sleeve, right before pulling out her shopping list. "If you say so," she muttered.

-IIXII-

A small yawn escaped Kval's lips. He opened an eye in order to clear his vision, but soon find himself screaming when noticing Ruby's face dangerously close to his own. "Uwaah!" If he had a weak heart, then there was no doubt that he would have gotten himself a heart attack.

"Good morning!" Ruby exclaimed, waking up most of the occupants inside the room they all were occupied in.

Weiss groaned, Blake grumbled, and Yang? Well, she kept on sleeping like a log on the bed she was sharing with the other two girls. Talk about a heavy sleeper.

"Kazuma, let's play!" Ruby said, her face beaming with excitement. "Ooh! Ooh! We can also draw! And then play hide-and-seek!"

Kval can say for sure that he was not ready for this in any capacity. Dealing with an excited Ruby Rose early in the morning could harm his mental state if he was not careful, so he needed to be smart about this.

"I uh…" Kval started. "I'm feeling a bit…tired. Can you please give me a few more minutes to rest?"

Oh, what a mistake that was.

Ruby made a face, and Kval immediately found himself feeling as if he had kicked a kitten with a safety boot.

"O-Okay…"

"Wait wait wait!" Kval quickly yelled in order to get the girl's attention, in which he did. He held up a hand and gave her a thumbs up, his smile growing nervous ever so slightly by the passing second. "I feel slightly better now, so how about we draw something? Will that be okay?"

Ruby gasped, the previous expression from before disappearing as if it was never there in the first place. And in all seriousness, Kval was honestly surprised to see how fast she was able to recover like that. "Yay!" she cheered.

Kval scratched his cheek. "Y-Yay."

Blake and Weiss opted to stay quiet and further observe the two from their bed, with Yang still sleeping despite the commotion going on inside the room.

"For someone his age, he is quite polite when it comes to dealing with others," Blake commented.

"I…" Weiss nodded. "…agree. That being said, I honestly think that my older sister would agree with me on this as well. She is quite fond of people like him."

"Typical," Blake muttered with a quick roll of her amber eyes, which thankfully went unnoticed by Weiss. "Anyway, we should help Ruby out. We can't just let her have all the fun. That would be unfair."

"Huh?" Weiss turned to Blake with a clueless expression. "Why do you say that? What do you mean?"

"I know this will sound weird coming from me," Blake said, smiling slightly. "but I honestly want to get to know him better. He seems…like an interesting individual."

Weiss formed her lips into a straight line, eyeing Blake with half-lidded eyes as if she knew what was Blake's true motive of wanting to know Kval better, in which she definitely did. "You just want to ask him what type of books he's interested in, don't you?"

Blake smirked. "Can't blame me."

Weiss sighed. "Typical."

-IIXII-

Summer exited the grocery store alongside Terumi, and judging by the look on her face, it was quite clear that she was troubled. After witnessing everyone's hatred and other negative emotions being directed at her employee, it was unbelievably hard for her to turn a blind eye to that.

How did he even end up like this? But more importantly, how is he even able to endure all of this? What caused him to receive so much hatred from other people in the first place?

"Glad to finally be done with this," Terumi muttered in an annoyed manner, unintentionally snapping Summer back into reality as he brushed past her shoulder, walking ahead. "Once we get back, I'll be borrowing your couch for a bit. Is that fine with you?"

Summer quickly formed a small smile on her face, just barely catching his question. "S-Sure. Go ahead." She noticed the glances he kept shooting in her direction, and decided to confront him about it. "What's bothering you, Terumi? You've been giving me weird looks, and I'm not sure how I should take that," she said.

"Y'know, I always did wonder what went through your mind when you first decided to hire me," Terumi said with narrowed eyes. He quickly turned away and focused his attention on the path ahead, which was a wise decision as he nearly stepped on some shit belonged to either a cat or a dog. Hell, it could have belonged to a human for all he knew. And fuck that shit.

Summer tilted her head to one side, also avoiding the tiny crap so that her combat boots would stay clean. "What do you mean?" she asked, confusion written across her face. "We talked about this before, didn't we?"

Ah. Terumi found himself smiling. I can finally see the big picture. No wonder. It was not a smirk, nor was it the occasional crazy grin he had when facing a losing opponent. It was just a smile.

A simple smile.

"I'm guessing that you're not from around here…"

Summer raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

Terumi held up a hand and waved it around in a dismissive manner, his smile still present albeit it was hidden.

"It's nothing."

Or so he thought.

Summer was stunned to say the least, though she quickly recovered. She was about to give him her comment regarding the first smile she had ever seen appearing on his face, but Terumi decided to move forward and beat her in terms of speaking.

"Come on, let's go." Terumi gave Summer a quick glance, his expression reverting back to its usual stoic look. "The glares I'm receiving are starting to get a bit tiresome for me."

Oh well, she can always try to bring it up again later. It's not like he was going anywhere.

-IIXII-

Not much happens in this one, unfortunately. It just showcases the main characters bonding with one another, and that's actually what I'm aiming for. I just hope that I did good with their personalities and whatnot.

Anyway, remember to review if you enjoyed the chapter! It helps!

CPL, signing out.