Welcome to the eighth chapter of Troublesome Brats!

I already had this done a long time ago, to be honest. It's just that, when my phone died, chapter 7 was still somewhere inside its internal storage, and it was incomplete. Ugh. I ended up doing chapter 8 ahead instead. But now, all is fixed.

Now, reviews!

EpicLinkSam: I am glad that I did not disappoint. And I'll try those ideas. To be honest, I never played UNIEL and P5, but I have watched the P4 Anime adaption and played its fighting game. Still, I'll try them out in the future extras if I can.

SifTheGreat: Like your name, you are one hell of a great reader. I'm glad I updated instead of abandoning the story, and it's honestly good to see people like you who have been worrying about the fate of Troublesome Brats. Keep being awesome!

Frank Horrigan: I have a feeling that there is one hell of a story behind those words of yours.

Lovnag: Well thank you. I try my best.

Now with reviews aside, let's read!

I own nothing.

-IIXII-

"Mister Ragna, was it? What was your last name again?"

Ragna can now say, without a doubt, that he was starting to regret his decision. He adjusted the collar of his red jacket as he allowed his eyes to wander over to anywhere besides the rabbit faunus. "I…don't really have one," he mumbled.

Said faunus smiled in return. "Oh. Well, it doesn't matter. I'm Velvet, by the way. Velvet Scarlatina." She held out a hand towards him. "I'll be looking forward to working with you," she said. "If there is anything that you'd like to know before we start, which will be an hour from now, then don't hesitate to ask."

"Well…" Ragna made a fool out of himself by scratching his head instead of accepting the offered hand, and the nervous look on his face wasn't helping. "…I have absolutely zero experience when it comes to this. Mind telling me what I'll be doing?"

Velvet nodded, pulling her hand back to her side. "For starters, help Coco over there with the chairs and wipe the tables after. But if you're talking about how to deal with customers, then all I can say is be polite, take their orders, and smile." She put up a friendly smile to prove her point. "Sounds easy, right?"

Easy? Hell, that sounded beyond easy! In fact, doing all that work with his eyes closed won't even going to be a damn problem!

Yeah, but despite saying that…

There was actually one tiny problem.

"Smile?" Ragna blinked a couple of times, acting as if the common word came from a donkey's ass of all things. "Is it…necessary?"

Velvet rolled her eyes, in a playful manner of course. "Well, this is a café. As a worker, smiling is everything around here. Pleasing the customers is top priority, after all."

Ragna looked uncertain about all this. "I'm not sure I should. It'll be bad for business."

"Bad for business? What does that even mean?" Velvet narrowed her eyes, staring at him. "If you're really that uncertain with how you'd look in front of others, then try me."

"I honestly don't think-"

"Just do it."

Then after that, everything went silent.

"Velvet! Can you get that new guy over here so he can help me with these chairs? I ain't doing 'em all by myself unless I'm getting paid extra," Coco sounded from where she was, arranging the chairs as she did so. She raised an eyebrow, however, when silence greeted her. "Velvet?" she called out.

Ragna came in and placed a hand onto the brunette's shoulder, before pointing his thumb at a rigid and pale Velvet. "She's over there. I'll handle these chairs. You just go and grab her something to drink," he said, sighing.

"Velvet? Oh Dust, Velvet! Are you okay!?" Coco called out as she ran to where Velvet was, panicking at the sight of her friend's extremely pale face.

Ragna, with his eyes closed and sweat rolling down his forehead, tightened his grip around the chair he was holding.

You asshole. You know for a fact that I'm bad when it comes to serving customers.

"Velvet! Can you hear me!?"

He gritted his teeth.

I'll murder your ass the next time I see you. Count on it.

-IIXII-

"Kazuma."

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind telling me why I have a scroll showing a picture of some crude drawing near my face at 9 AM?" Terumi said, eyeing said scroll with an annoyed expression. Despite having the device shoved near his face, he made no move to turn away. His current position on his futon was too comfortable to just simply do that, so he opted to stay.

"It's Ruby's drawing," Kval explained with a small chuckle. "Miss Rose sent this picture to me a couple of minutes ago. Apparently, according to her, Ruby's excited to see you today, so she drew a picture of you standing in front of their house in order to contain her excitement."

Terumi gave an amused huff. "That stick figure is supposed to be me? Sure I can see my cloak and all, but really? I prefer dog crap than this, and I can find that anywhere in the streets if I wanted to."

Kval made a blank face. "Really? That's just mean, Brother."

"I'm just saying." Terumi closed his eyes, intent on getting as much sleep as he could before he'd start working in the next few hours. "Also, I'm surprised that you're not in there, considering the fact that you're close to the brat."

Kval rolled his eyes. "She's excited about you, not me," he muttered.

Terumi found himself smirking. "Jealous much?"

"Why should I be?" Kval sat down on his own futon and kept away his scroll device, laying himself down soon after in order to stare at the ceiling. "It's not like I like her or anything," he said.

Terumi cracked open an eye. "She'd cry for sure if I tell her that you've said that."

"What? Hey! I-I didn't mean it that way!" Kval exclaimed, wide-eyed. "Don't tell her that!"

Terumi laughed. "Yeah yeah, whatever floats your boat." He turned away. "Anyway, just let me sleep for an hour or two. I don't want to end up sleeping in that house just to get myself assaulted again."

Kval sighed. "I'll be sure to-" His scroll started vibrating, gaining his undivided attention. "Eh?"

"What is it?" Terumi mumbled.

"Give me a moment." Kval pulled out his scroll in order to check out what all the vibrating was about, which didn't really take too long. "I've just received a message from Miss Rose," he said. "Says that she's leaving early for today, so-"

"Dust dammit!"

And with that, Terumi and Kval quickly got themselves ready and stepped out of their apartment room. Kval didn't seem to mind much as they walked, but Terumi…

"How does she expect me to work? How? I need my sleep damn it!"

Kval rolled his eyes for the second time that day, walking near his brother's side with a patient expression. Living with someone like his older brother for the most part of his life has taught him a thing or two, and one of those thing or twos were to always be patient. Lord knows how many of those he still has in stock…

"Just accept the fact that you're going to work, Brother," Kval said, noticing a handful of glares sent their way by a group of suspicious people with masks on their faces. He made no effort to point that out to his brother, however. "I mean, it won't be that bad."

"I know it won't, but…" Terumi pinched the bridge of his nose, hiding away his frustrations by closing his eyes. "…I just want my morning sleep. Is that just too much to ask?"

There aren't a lot of people in the area from what I can tell. Kval moved his eyes over to the left, just in time to spot a couple more of those mask-wearing people hiding behind a large tree, but unlike the others, they carried pistols instead of blades. Hiding behind a tree? Really? These White Fang grunts are growing desperate by the day from what I can tell. Oh well. It's not like I'm going to have a problem when it comes down to dealing with them.

"And I haven't even had breakfast!" Terumi continued, entirely oblivious to his surroundings. "Can you believe that!?"

"I'm sure Miss Rose has prepared something for you to eat at her house. She's just nice like that," Kval assured his brother as he darted his eyes from a White Fang soldier to another, keeping them in his line of sight as well as taking notes of their every move. "Say, why don't you just go on ahead while I head to the grocery store for a bit? I'm feeling quite thirsty," he said with a small smile.

"Huh?" Terumi stared at him, puzzled. "Are you sure? I mean, I'm not really in a rush or anything."

"No, I'll be fine." Kval grinned. "Go ahead."

Terumi stared at his younger sibling for a moment longer, before shrugging. "Alright then. Just don't take too long, you hear? It would be embarrassing for me to search through the entire city for your ass if you were to suddenly go missing."

"I won't, so no worries there." Kval stopped his legs from moving any further and started waving at Terumi, smiling as his older sibling walked off into the distance. With the smile still present on his face, he quickly moved his waving hand to his right, shooting out Ouroboros from his sleeve and catching a White Fang soldier by the arm with said chain. "Besides, these are pitiful bugs I'm dealing with."

-IIXII-

Terumi decided to announce his presence by kicking Summer's door open, before loudly exclaiming, "Well here I am!" He caught sight of his employer jumping a few inches off the floor due to his sudden appearance, and he couldn't help but grin widely at that. "Why the sudden jump, Boss?" he teased.

Summer glared at him. "Oh you know exactly the reason why I jumped, Terumi. And that innocent look you're making won't fool anyone!"

Terumi blew a raspberry, still quite enjoying himself. "Yeah whatever. Now, where are those kids?"

"Her friends aren't here yet, but Ruby's right over-"

"Mister Terumi!" a voice squealed out.

A black and red blur zoomed past Summer, leaving a trail of red rose petals to drift down the air around her. And as it turned out, the blur was actually Ruby herself, and Terumi was unable to prepare himself when the little ball of energy came tackling him to the ground with a force so powerful that it would put a speeding train to shame.

"Gah!" Terumi coughed, no longer enjoying himself. "Hey, what's the damn deal here!?"

Summer smiled, despite gazing at the sight of her troubled employee. "She's just excited to see you. Say welcome, Ruby," she said.

"Welcome, Ruby!" Ruby exclaimed with a wide grin, earning a small giggle from her mother, as well as a low grumbling noise from Terumi.

"Alright, let's get inside," Summer announced. "I've also prepared breakfast in case you're hungry, so there's no need to worry."

Terumi's stomach decided to be an asshole by growling right then and there, indicating that he was hungry just by the mention of food.

The three went inside soon after that, mostly it was thanks to Terumi since he was starving and wanted a bite to eat.

Summer took note of Terumi occasionally scratching his belly as they walked around inside her house, and she couldn't help but comment, "Quite the belly you have there."

"I haven't had breakfast…" Terumi mumbled in response, looking away.

"Then you are in for a treat!" Ruby exclaimed, her eyes filled with cheerfulness and excitement which made her mother laugh and blush at the same time. "She made pancakes, chocolate chip cookies, and…err…pancakes, and…" Ruby held up her hands and started counting with her fingers. "Um…"

Terumi raised an eyebrow as he eyed the energetic child, no doubt questioning her lack of tiredness. Were kids always like this early in the morning?

"You forgot one last thing, sweetie," Summer reminded, smiling.

"Um…" Ruby narrowed her eyes, before they widened along with the grin on her cute little face. "Boiled eggs! Yeah!"

The size of Terumi's eyes instantly skyrocketed into the next dimension upon hearing the name of his most favorite treat. With his stomach growling like a bear having diarrhea in the middle of winter, he forced his legs to move faster in order to reach the kitchen.

Little Ruby barely made it when it came to moving out of her caretaker's way. She stared at the older man's back with a clueless look, head tilting to one side. "Huh?" was the only word she was able to come up with.

Summer chose that moment to let out a small giggle. "He sure loves his eggs." She then redirected her attention to her daughter. "Go keep him company, sweetie. I still need to prepare my equipment for today's job," she said.

Ruby looked up to her mother with a grin and nodded excitedly. "Okay!"

In the kitchen, Terumi paid no mind to table manners, despite knowing the fact that the house he was in belonged to his employer. None of that mattered to him when it came down to boiled eggs. He just kept shoving them in his mouth and chewed as if he was spending the last moments of his life on the planet.

Damn. If Kval were to see him now like this, then he was sure to receive some measure of scolding.

"I haven't had a decent breakfast in a while," Terumi commented, right before shoving another boiled egg into his mouth. He paused, chewed, then swallowed. After that, he leaned back into his chair and started rubbing his belly with the look of pure bliss plastered across his usually scowling face. "Damn that felt good!" he exclaimed.

"I know right?"

"Geh!" Terumi nearly fell out of his chair upon hearing Ruby's voice. He corrected himself and made sure that his chair would not betray him, before looking over to the other side of the table to see Ruby's head just barely poking out from under it. Right now, all he could see was her hair. "What do you want, short stuff?" he asked with narrowed eyes, seriously forgetting the fact that he was in another person's home.

Ruby moved around a bit and finally succeeded in making her face visible for Terumi to see. Well, a part of her face, anyway. "So were the eggs delicious or what?"

Terumi locked eyes with the child, which was literally the only visible part of her face he could see at the moment. After a couple of seconds, he finally responded with a simple, "I guess."

"Then! T-Then…" Ruby struggled as she pulled herself up onto the table, much to Terumi's amusement. Once done, she pointed towards a plate of hot pancakes and quickly suggested, "Try those! They are the best!"

Terumi squinted his eyes at the innocent child and placed his left elbow onto the table, trying to look intimidating but failing miserably. "I'm not sure if I should trust you. My boss could have poisoned them for all I know," he said.

"Really? But…you gobbled down all those eggs without a second thought," Ruby pointed out. "Aren't you the least bit worried?"

Terumi stared at her with a serious face. "You do realise that I was joking, right?"

"Oh." Ruby grinned. She grabbed one of the forks which were prepared on the table and held it out towards her caretaker. "Does that mean…?" she trailed off.

Terumi rolled his eyes and snatched the fork away from the child's tiny hand, though it did not seem like she minded. "Yeah yeah. If it'll make you feel any better, I'll try some."

"Yay!" cheered Ruby. "I'm sure you'll love it!"

"I'll be the judge of that," Terumi stated as he pulled the plate filled with pancakes towards himself. They smelled good, not going to lie, but frankly that wasn't important. To him, the taste was what's truly important, so these pancakes better not disappoint him in terms of taste or else! "Hmm…"

"Go on," Ruby encouraged, holding in her excitement while she was at it.

Rolling his eyes, Terumi tightened his grip around the fork in his hand and stabbed one of the pancakes with more force than necessary. He brought the treat up to his mouth and took a tiny bite, but seconds later he found himself tearing the pancake to pieces with his teeth before redirecting his attention to the ones still on the plate.

Screw table manners!

Ruby watched the scene unfold before her with a large grin plastered across her face, giggling occasionally at the sight of her caretaker choking himself by accident. "Take it easy, Mister Terumi," she suggested.

"Yeah yeah, I know what I'm doing," Terumi said with his mouth filled to the brim with delicious pancakes, rolling his eyes soon after that. "These are tasty, I'll give 'em that. But even then, they are still nowhere near the level of boiled eggs."

Ruby found herself pouting. "But why?"

Terumi simply shrugged. "Just because."

-IIXII-

Summer checked herself one last time and, once she was sure that she had everything she needed for the day ahead, she grabbed her signature white cloak and made her way down the stairs with a smile on her face. Voices from the kitchen, no doubt belonging to her daughter and her employee, caught her attention as she walked, but that did nothing to stop her from heading towards the front door when someone came knocking in order to announce their presence.

Now that I think about it, Terumi arrived here on his own earlier. So I guess that means…

Summer went to the door and opened it up, smiling when Kazuma Kval entered her line of sight.

Who seemed to be sweating bullets for some reason. Hell, he looked as if he had been running through the streets of the whole darn town for no good reason.

Can't say that she wasn't worried for his well-being.

"Kazuma." Summer knelt down to the child's level, eyeing him with her concerned eyes. "You look exhausted. I know I shouldn't be asking this, but mind telling me what you have been doing?"

"I was…" Kazuma wiped some sweat off his brow as a smile took its place on his pale face, taking in some air as he did so. "…running around, being silly. Nothing worth noting."

Summer narrowed her eyes. "I see."

Something seemed utterly wrong about that smile he was presenting to her, but she decided to let it slide for now. Perhaps she could question him about it later. Right now, she had work to do. And she was late at that!

But before that…

"Ruby, sweetie! I'm leaving now!" Summer called out to the kitchen. She grinned. "Mind giving me a hug before I go?"

Not long after that, a black and red blur came slamming into Summer, much to Kval's surprise.

"Be a good girl while I'm away, you hear?" Summer returned her daughter's embrace, and all she could do was smile when Ruby started nodding her head up and down repeatedly. "Good girl. And be sure to not give Mister Terumi a headache. He has had quite enough of that, it seems."

"Okay!" Ruby exclaimed.

Summer nodded once and went up to her full height. She turned to Kval and winked at him, much to his confusion. "I'm off then. Take good care of my daughter, Kazuma," she said.

"E-Eh?" Kval blinked three times in one second, his mouth slightly agape. "Shouldn't that be my brother's job?"

Summer giggled quietly and ruffled the child's hair, stepping out of the house soon after that. "Oh you know what I mean," she said.

Kval sighed as he watched the older woman leave, not taking note of Ruby standing directly behind him with a mischievous grin plastered across her face. "Apparently I don't," he mumbled to no one but himself.

"Boo!"

"Uwaah!"

-IIXII-

"I'm guessing she left, which basically means my work starts now. Dammit, how troublesome," Terumi mumbled as he rose up from his chair. He took a handful of cookies from the plate which was placed directly in front of him on the table and made his way out of the kitchen with the intention of greeting his little brother. "It sure took him a while to get here," Terumi mumbled once more, popping one of the treats in his mouth after that.

He reached the front door and took in the sight displayed before him.

Kval seemed to be scolding little Ruby about something. Whatever it was, Terumi wasn't sure. Though no matter how serious he appeared to be, it didn't seem like Ruby was paying any attention to what he was saying.

Poor Kazuma.

Terumi crossed his arms and leaned himself against the wall, eyeing the pair as a small smile found its way up to his face. It was honestly good to see him getting along with kids around his age, rather than a bunch of adults like usual. That was partially his fault, he will definitely admit.

After taking a couple of seconds to examine him up and down, Terumi took note of his younger sibling's slightly disheveled appearance, and could only afford to shake his head as a reaction.

Terumi knew something was up the moment his little brother wanted to stay behind, but he was just too lazy to do anything about it. And besides, it was a bit too early for him to start doing anything that required a lot of physical energy.

Still…

You fought them again, didn't you?

-IIXII-

Ooh! New characters!

Velvet Scarlatina - 16

Coco Adel - 16

And that is all for this one. The next chapter will be the other half, meaning that we will actually get to see Terumi working as a damn caretaker as well as him…meeting certain people in the process.

Also, yes, Kval can handle himself in a fight against a whole crowd of armed men. He was raised by two deadly assholes, so what do you expect? And also, yes, Terumi has some sort of history with the White Fang. Just picture the place they live in as an area that has all kinds of trouble happening each day to the point where even the authorities are unable to handle things. Yeah.

Anyway, leave a review if you enjoyed!

CPL, over and out.