A/N: Well, hello there! Here is Chapter Five of Caleb's Story! Author's Note at the end.
Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DXD
CHAPTER FIVE: I GET A ROOMMATE
'No.'
'Why not?'
'Because I said so.'
'I'm still your master.'
'It's my apartment.'
'Provided for by Akano-san.'
'Still mine.'
'Exactly. Which is why it's only right for me to take the couch.'
'As your servant, I should be the one taking the couch. And besides, I already put half of your boxes in my room.' Caleb was getting tired of all the bickering. If only Rias wouldn't be such a hard head and take the damn room.
They have a stare down, neither blinking, both breathing evenly. Neither letting the other find any miniscule advantage. Suddenly, Caleb notices a mischievous glint in Rias' eyes. This wouldn't be good. Rias quickly tackles Caleb, sending them both to the ground. She straddles his waist, their pelvises pressed together. Caleb holds still as a statue, eyes wide. Rias smiles, she was in charge now.
'You know, I really don't mind if you see me naked in the living room every day. So just let me take the couch!' She says, not letting up on pinning Caleb down. He glares at her.
'You decided everything else we had to share. The bathroom, the drawers, even the toothpaste!' He retorts. 'Can you at least let me decide on this one?' Caleb was once again blushing furiously, not the least bit comfortable with how they were positioned. Rias, however, smiles sweetly at him.
'Why don't you just tell me that you're shy about seeing me naked? If you do, I'll let you have the couch.' She says, sighing. All she wanted to do was to find out why Caleb would always get flustered around her if she got naked, the other servants were already used to it. Caleb had to get used to it too.
'It's not that I'm shy.' He says finally. Rias raises her eyebrow at him, signaling him to continue. 'It's just that I respect you. And I don't want to end up violating your privacy.' For the second time ever, Caleb had taken Rias aback with his answer, the latter staring at him for a few tense moments, before smiling genuinely at him.
'You really are a good person, Caleb.' Rias says before finally getting off of Caleb, much to his relief. She starts heading to her new room, dragging Caleb along with her.
'I guess it's up to me to get you to stop being so uptight! We're going out. And we're changing together.'
'I can't believe you can lock people in your room from the outside!' Rias says, stepping out of her room, Caleb waiting outside with a victorious smirk on his face. She was wearing a yellow sundress that reached mid-thigh, with brown boat shoes to match. Caleb stepped out with a red hoodie, wearing a white shirt inside, and black pants. Rias had expressed protest about Caleb's sneaky tactic to keep her 'contained when necessary.'
'Whatever, can we just go?' A flustered Caleb says, locking up his apartment. 'Where are we going anyway?' He says, keeping a few paces behind Rias, who seemed to be completely content walking.
'There's this amusement park just outside of town. We can take the train there.'
'Couldn't we have just gone to the park or something?'
'It'll be a nice change of pace. Plus, I've never actually been to one before.' Caleb starts to pick up his pace and catches up to Rias. 'Seriously?' He asks. Rias nods. 'We don't exactly have those in the underworld.'
They continue their walking in silence until they reach the train station. Rias starts to idly chat with Caleb, trying to find out things about him.
'Okay, 'Hide'. As part of you loosening up, you'll have to let me know stuff about you.' Rias says, taking a seat across Caleb in the train. She looks at him and then looks pointedly at a group of students from their school who were sitting a few rows away from them.
'Fine, shoot.' He says nonchalantly.
'Okay, what's your favorite color?'
'Yellow.'
'Food?'
'Dango'
'That's a snack.'
'It's food.'
'When did you start playing baseball and football?'
'When I was eleven.'
'What's you-'
'Are you really just gonna ask questions the entire ride there?' Caleb asks. Rias cocks her head to the side, as if to ask 'what would you like to talk about?'
'Okay, why Japan, of all places? Europe is some place I'd wanna visit, why not just stay there?' He asks. Rias smiles and closes her eyes.
'I just... Love everything about this place. The ethnicity, culture, people. Everything's so...different. Like a new adventure, unlike my old home in the underworld.' She says. 'And I gotta say, I've loved every second I've spent here.'
'Wow...' Caleb says, a little surprised by Rias' answer. 'That was a lot more meaningful than I thought. I mean, I thought you were just here for diplomacy or something.'
'That has some truth to it, but I willingly came here for personal reasons.' She says, looking out the window. Caleb keeps his eyes on her, for the first time really appreciating her presence.
She had saved his ass three times now-granted almost killing him before the saving,-but saved him nonetheless. For some weird reason, she decided to bunk with him to keep him out of trouble. Whether for personal or official business, he didn't know. What he did know was that the spoken thank you he had given her a few days before was not enough for the things she had done for him. He silently promised to at least make sure Rias had fun at the amusement park. Even if he had to 'loosen up.'
'You're staring.' Rias says, not taking her eyes off the window. 'I'm looking at you, duh.' He says, completely flat. Rias turns her head towards him, an eyebrow raised, but a small smile on her lips.
'You're very blunt when you talk. Did you know that?'
'My ex told me that a lot, too.' Both of Rias' eyebrows rise at the word 'ex', an expression of surprise on her face. She wiggles her eyebrows at him. 'Now that's something you have to tell me about.'
'Wow... This place is huge!' Rias exclaims, an excited glint in her eyes. Though Caleb had to admit, this place was bigger than most of the amusement parks he had been to.
'So, what do you wanna do first?' Caleb asks. Rias looks around the park, and then points her finger at the park's roller coaster, complete with three loops and a lot of turns. 'That one!' She says. Caleb can already feel his stomach churning, but ignores it and starts to lead the way...
Six minutes later...
'Let's try that one next!' Rias says, happily skipping to their next ride. Caleb on the other hand, is already fighting down the urge to vomit, his head was spinning and his stomach was completely out of sorts. And it just so happened that the next ride involved two spinning discs...
Ten minutes later...
Caleb was fairly sure that he could still go on after the disc ride, but now, he needed the bathroom. He immediately shot down Rias' request on the next ride-who did not seem like she had just gone on the two rides Caleb had gone in- and practically dragged her to where the park's bathrooms were. He proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach in the men's room.
Caleb opened up the bathroom's faucet and splashed water on his face, trying to wash out the dizziness, also partially gargling to remove any unwanted objects in his mouth. He looks himself in the mirror and lightly slaps both sides of his cheeks. I can do this, what other rides could they have here?
Caleb exited the bathroom to find Rias munching on cotton candy while sitting on a bench; a scene that could mean a break from going on rides, to Caleb's relief, if it wasn't for the two guys who were trying to hit on Rias. 'Come on; let's just ditch the guy you're with. What kind of a man can't handle a few rides?' Caleb hears one of the guys say. That one was standing in front of Rias, the other one was sitting on the bench with his arm around her. The entire scene immediately pissed off Caleb.
Rias notices Caleb's approach, and gives him a look before trying to turn down both men again. 'I'm really sorry, but I'm only here to spend the day with my friend.' She says. 'Come on, baby. The guy's probably spilling out his guts in there. He's probably all hunched over and too sick to keep up with you.'
'Or, he could be standing behind you, ready to bash your face in, motherfucker.' Caleb stood behind the guy who was standing, practically towering over him because of his height. The latter seemed to have been intimidated by this, and backed off. The one who was sitting, however, kept his ground, though Caleb could sense that he was intimidated.
'Back. Off.' Caleb says, cracking his knuckles and putting on his most intimidating face. This seems to work, as the guy gives Caleb a glare before getting off the bench and walking off with his friend. Once they were out of sight, Caleb plops himself down on the bench.
'Finally.' He says, leaning his head back. Rias puts the cotton candy in front of Caleb's face. He looks over it for a second before picking off a piece and putting it in his mouth. 'Feeling better?' She asks. Caleb closes his eyes and replies, 'Yeah, a little.'
'Why don't we go eat?' Caleb groans in response. 'I don't think that's such a good idea.' Rias crosses her arms and gives Caleb a look. 'We'll go get dango.' Without missing a beat, Caleb stands straight up and looks at Rias expectantly, eliciting a laugh from the other. 'Well? Lead the way.'
After getting themselves dango, Caleb and Rias ended up chatting with each other for a while before deciding to go on rides again, much to Caleb's dismay, though Rias promised to go on light rides...Considering that 'light ' meant the bungee jump and a descender. Afterwards, Caleb made himself in charge and proclaimed that he was going to pick the next few rides, meaning the bumper cars, haunted house, and the laser tag place that the park had. Having just finished the laser tag place, they were now walking along the park, thinking about their next ride.
'Now wasn't that so much nicer than all the rides you picked?' Caleb says, completely elated that he hadn't needed to go to the bathroom again. 'I guess you're right.' Rias replies. 'Though I still like my rides better.'
They walk past a few game stalls and Caleb is surprised when Rias bolts to one of them. After catching up to her, he realizes why. The stall had a simple ball throwing game; the prizes were the main attraction, instead of stuffed animals. It claimed it had several Japanese antiques, a rouse probably for the attraction of tourists. Sadly, Rias got hooked on it the moment she saw it, and was now looking at Caleb hopefully.
'All right, all right.' He says, walking up to the stand. 'How much for a throw?'
Rias watched from a few feet away how Caleb's face scrunched up after finding out how much a throw cost. Nonetheless he paid, and took six throws, landing every single one. The stall handler looked at him dumbfoundedly while he handed Caleb a small box as his prize. Feeling smug after beating the game, he walks back to Rias, wearing a smirk on his face.
'Easy picking.' He says while handing Rias the box. 'What's in the box?' She asks. Caleb shrugs. 'I don't know. I asked him which prize cost the most and aimed for it.' Rias raises her eyebrow at Caleb, who responds by giving her a sheepish look and ushers her to open the box. Rias takes a moment and pulls aside the lid of the wooden box... Revealing a fan.
'A fan?' She says, gingerly lifting it from the box. Caleb inspects it carefully and says. 'Not just any fan, it looks like an old Japanese ceremonial fan, maybe from a wedding, or something.' Rias opens the fan and looks at its design. It had a black frame with white paper connecting the frame together. A cherry blossom tree painted on one side with a few inscriptions written on it. She closes it back up and returns it to the box.
'Real or not, I like it.' She says, looking at Caleb. 'Thank you Caleb.' Caleb gives her a smile and says that it was no problem.
For the rest of the afternoon, Rias and Caleb sift through the various games in the park. One that Caleb favored was the claw machine, displaying his skills in getting stuffed animals with the claw easily. There was also a skee ball game where Caleb was able to win a three-foot stuffed dragon. By the time night fell, Rias had asked to go on the Ferris wheel and see the view, Caleb readily agreed, wanting to see the town outskirts himself.
'The breeze is pretty cold up here.' Caleb says, looking over the car's railing. They were way up high on the Ferris wheel, taking its last run on their turn. Caleb looks over to Rias, particularly her hair. It was always what caught his attention most. The messy style it had, the way she wore it, the color. He didn't know why, but her hair made him go crazy!
'You stare too much, you know.' Rias' words snaps Caleb back to reality, bet he continues to stare at Rias. 'That's because I'm looking at you.' She scoffs at him. 'Does that work with everyone you stare at?' He shrugs.
'I don't really get caught.'
'So you're letting me catch you?'
'Your hair is too weird for me to care.' Caleb says blankly, Rias does a face palm. 'You're completely blunt, too.' Caleb frowns and burrows his brows. 'What's wrong with that?' Rias shakes her head at him and smiles. So you can loosen up. She thinks.
'You're hopeless.'
'Are you really okay with me wearing your hoodie?' Rias says as she puts on Caleb's red hoodie, while he picks up all the prizes they had won, consisting of the three-foot stuffed dragon on one hand, and a bag of claw machine prizes on the other. Rias held onto the fan.
'You're cold, right?'
'Yes.'
'Then wear it.' He says. They resume their leisurely walk home.
After a good couple of minutes of walking, they finally reach Caleb's apartment, much to his relief. The second they got inside, Caleb immediately collapses on sofa, not bothering to expand it, leaving the prizes on the side.
'I'll fix your stuff tomorrow. Goodnight.' He says, squeezing himself on the couches' backrest. He's surprised when he gets pulled of his little couch. 'Oof!'
'Don't be lazy!' Rias says as she extends the couch and places the pillows. Caleb feels guilty and helps her out, then putting her prizes into the room, finding a spot for them on his shelves and setting the dragon plushie on the bed. He steps back out after noticing that Rias hadn't come into the room yet.
'Hey, aren't you gonna-' Caleb clips his mouth shut as he sees Rias soundly sleeping on the couch-bed. He shakes his head and approaches her. 'Can't sleep unless you're completely nude, huh?' He whispers to her. He gently picks her up and walks over to the room, setting her on the bed, removing her shoes and tucking her in.
Caleb kneels beside the bed, looking at Rias. 'And I thought I was tired.' He quietly remarks, stifling a yawn, Rias looking completely serene. Against his better judgment, he tucks a loose strand of her red hair behind her ear, and looks at her a little longer. He shakes his head.
'What are you doing Caleb?' He says to himself, standing up and heading out the room. He shuts off the light, but stops abruptly before closing the door, looking back at the sleeping girl in his bed.
'Goodnight, Rias.' He says, closing the door.
Unfortunately for Caleb, the night had just begun.
CHAPTER FIVE END
A/N: It is exactly 1:47 AM right now, but sleep is for the weak, am I right? Anyway, the arc is slowly drawing to a close. Well, not exactly, I'm pretty sure chapter six is the last for the mini-arc, then I take a break to let school sink in. I do have good news, though. I just got my class schedule, and I think I can squeeze in the extra chapters weekly, no promises, though.
As soon as the next chapter gets out, it's break time for me, but I will put in an extra chapter for the next arc, the arc that I've been waiting to write, so I'm pretty excited to be able to write freely without the pressure of the weekly update. I don't think I missed anything, so that's it for this chapter. I will see you guys-is that appropriate?-next week!
