"May I ask you a favor, Krom-niisan?"

"Yes~?"

"Can I change my name?"

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Their Daily Lives

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Genre: Friendship – Family

Rate: T

Warning: lame reason about Krowell's other name, grammar mistake. #cries

Disclaimer: 07-Ghost still belongs to Yukino Ichihara and Yuki Amemiya, even though they had ended it recently…

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Story 20

~Visiting Orphanage~

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Kreuz, who was drinking when Krowell asked the question, almost died because of choking. Meanwhile, Krom—as well as his beloved son, Tiashe—stared at the youngest of three siblings with widened eyes. They blinked at a same time, then stared at each other before turned their attention to Krowell again. This time, with a gleeful (and naughty) smile on Krom's lip.

"No problem. But why did you want it of all sudden?"

"…ask your brother-in-law. I don't want to tell you by myself," said Krowell, with a faint annoyed look on his face.

"Huh? My brother in—oh. Him."

"Yep. That person."

While Krom and Krowell discussed about the name, Tiashe went to his other uncle. The blond man was trying to control his breath when his nephew suddenly asked, "Uncle Kreuz, who's the one they're talking about?" while pulling his sleeve with innocent and confused eyes.

Kreuz raised one of his eyebrows. "Pardon me? Who're they talking about?"

Tiashe puffed his cheeks. "Dad's brother-in-law. Does Mom have any sibling?"

The middle child blinked his eyes. "Uhh… I don't think your Mom has a sibling—oh, wait. I do know him. You know him too, by the way."

"Eeh? I've met him before?"

Kreuz laughed nervously. "He lives at the manor; that's your first clue."

"Lives at… the manor?"

#

"Huh? Reason why Krowell wants to change his name?"

Landkarte had to restrain his laughter. He knew that Ea would be mad whenever someone disturb his conversation, so he chose to cover his mouth instead with his hand and filled his mind with other things instead of that moment; the reason why Krom called Ea and asked him the question.

"Uhh, yes. I know it. But he didn't want anyone to know, so… Eh? He wants me to tell it to you? Well, I have no choice then… But then, Krom-san, I'm afraid that your phone bill will be very high later. Can I just text you later?"

Landkarte raised both of his eyebrows. Ea would be Ea no matter what happened, and his economic side would always appear whenever someone's getting wasteful.

"…you're going to come here? With Little Tiashe and Kreuz? Where's Krowell?"

The light haired teen beside him took a deep breath, and sighed softly. He couldn't help but pitying the silver haired teen now; Eve laughed too loud when she saw the 'incident' by herself that time. And of course, Krowell didn't take it gently—even if the one who laughed was his girlfriend. Fortunately, though, he didn't dare to break up with her. Not yet.

"Okay then. I'll ask Profe to prepare some cakes for you. See you later, Krom-san."

Landkarte was about to say something when Ea suddenly frowned and said, "Huh? You want me to call you 'Onii-san'? Aren't you satisfied yet with two brothers already?"

That sound veeeery ambiguous.

At least, for Landkarte.

When Ea ended the conversation with, "Maybe yes, maybe no," to Krom and wore his usual pokerface again, the dark haired teen stared at his housemate with strange look on his eyes. "Is there anything wrong with my face, Landkarte?"

Landkarte, whose expression was mixture from trying not to laugh, almost entering his jealous-yandere mode and pitying Krom for a certain reason, could only waved his hand; a gesture which told Ea to ignore about the current him and prepare some cakes instead. Ea just shrugged, then walked casually toward the kitchen without caring about the real reason of Landkarte's current condition. After the dark haired teen disappeared, the light haired one moved his hands to cover his eyes and mumbling something like, "Don't ever try to imagine something like that, Landkarte… He said 'two brothers', not anything else… Stop thinking something dirty like that, you pervert…"

I wonder what's he thinking about?

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"I'm ho~me!"

"This is not your home, Onii-san."

"Well, this is Kreuz and Ea's. And no matter where is it, if my brother lives there, so it's mine too! You too, Krowell, say that!"

"Hell no."

"Words, boy!"

Landkarte stared pitifully at Kreuz, who was face palmed while carrying Tiashe on his arm. Ea wore his usual poker face, although one can saw surprised look on his face clearly. "And I thought this wrinkly Uncle didn't come here too…" After Kreuz shot him a tired look, Ea waved his hand. "No, not you, Vertrag. But your younger brother; that's our nickname for him at school. No offense intended. If you don't believe me, ask Little Tiashe—he knows it too."

And after hearing that, Krom chuckled amusedly. "So, shall we go to the living room now? I'm very curious about what happened until my youngest brother wants to change his name."

"I'm off from here."

"No you're not. Don't ever try to think that you can escape from the 'judgment' later, boy," said Krom while pulling Krowell's back. Dark aura that spread fast from his back made Ea and Kreuz wondered and whispered something while Landkarte was playing with Tiashe.

"Do you think that all of cheerful people have yandere side, Vertrag?"

"Hmm… I don't believe it at first. But after seeing the proofs myself, I started to think like that too…"

Inside their mind, faces of a certain asymmetrical haired boy, a longhaired blond and dark-haired women, and the oldest of three siblings from Raggs family appeared suddenly. They sighed together, ignoring the looks they gained from four other people there.

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[Flashback]

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That was one of most sunny day of the year when Eve suddenly announced, "We'll help Kurena at the orphanage she's working at!"

Landkarte blinked innocently, Ea stopped at the midway of eating his cake, and Krowell just stared at his girlfriend as if she was growing another head. Kurena, who stood silently behind Eve's back, bowed her head; asking for help too, since she was sure that one need more than two people to take care about fifty children. The three males in the room exchanged their glance, talking silently via gazes for around five minutes until Eve suddenly shouted again, "And no complain—we're doing it since three of you didn't have works to do anymore! It's not bad to help your friend, isn't it?"

"Well, it isn't like we're going to refuse the offer…" Landkarte replied, while looking at the stoic silver haired teen from the corner of his eyes. "…but, you see, your beloved boyfriend who is stoic and wrinkly and can't even baby-sits his nephew without his friends' helps has an issue here…"

"Can I punch him now, Ea?"

"I'll be glad if you've done it since a long time ago, Krowell."

"How rude!"

Eve sighed. She forgot that Krowell indeed had some serious problem in this part. "I'll try to fix that later. Now, get up and we'll go immediately, boys! Children can't wait silently for more than five minutes!"

"Yes, Ma'am," Ea and Landkarte said in unison, while Krowell just face palmed on where he sat now.

He got a bad feeling for this, by the way…

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When they arrived at Kurena's workplace, they had different reaction at a same time; Landkarte, who was always having good times with children (and personality which almost similar with them, according to Ea), immediately became one of their playmates. Eve and Kurena went to take care of female children, while Ea has been asked to do the story telling by some children. And Krowell…

…well, he just acted like usual, anyway.

And that made children scared of him more than they're afraid of boogeyman.

His appearance, which was consisted of dark clothes from head to toe, until the only light colored parts were his hair and vest only (his skin didn't count, since it was pale colored like a vampire) at that time didn't help him at all.

Ea was about to tell the conflict when a boy suddenly cried—a boy in Krowell's group, for more accurately.

He and Landkarte suddenly felt a déjà vu.

"Oooh, what a poor boy! What happened here until you cry, hmm?" asked Eve pitifully. She gestured at Krowell to distance himself from the children for a while, and got a glare from her boyfriend as a reply. She ignored the glare, anyway, and continued to calm the child on her lap.

"T-that nii-tan scales me! Uwaaah!"

Landkarte had to cover his mouth so he wouldn't get Krowell's deadly glare. Ea face palmed silently, and Kurena sighed tiredly—she should've known that inviting Krowell here meant a child would cry. And she started to regret it now.

"Bad, bad Krowell! Now apologize to him!" Eve said childishly while pointing at Krowell. The appointed one frowned; his dignity prevented him from doing so, but if he didn't do it now…

"And if I say now, it's NOW!"

…he didn't want to see a female version of Kreuz lecturing him like he once did in past. Moreover, in front of public.

Krowell sighed softly, then kneeled in front of Eve and the crying child and bowed his head—and made the children surprised successfully. "Forgive me for scaring you just now. What can I do to make you stop crying?" He said softly. The once crying boy blinked, looked at Eve before turning his attention back to a guilty teen in front of him.

Deep inside his mind, Krowell thanked his brothers—and Profe too—for showing him the way to take care of a child after Tiashe's accident.

"Nee, what should he do now?" Eve asked the boy gently. The boy was thinking for a while, before he suddenly smiled widely like nothing ever happened and clapped his hand cheerfully while saying, "Sing a song fol me, Kulowelu*-niitan!"

Upon hearing the new name for her boyfriend, Eve burst out laughing—loudly. No need to use microphone to make her voice audible for everyone.

Ea inhaled deeply. He was lucky to have a good control for himself, and in a similar situation with Kurena. But our poor Landkarte…

"Huh? What's wrong with you, Landkarte-niichan?" asked an innocent boy, who realized that Landkarte was suffering from restraining his laughter. Krowell threw his deadliest glare to his girlfriend and childhood playmate, before started to sing 'London Bridge is Falling Down' for the boy.

So this was his premonition back then.

And that was the end of the story about the reason why Krowell wanted to change his name.

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End of Flashback

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Tiashe stared at his youngest uncle innocently, while his father was laughing uncontrollably and his other uncle was shaking from restraining his laughter. Krowell ate his cake with his poker face on, trying to hide his dark aura and gloomy gaze from other to see. Unfortunately for Landkarte, who realized that a mere eating tool could be very deadly on Krowells' hand, he had to go to his bedroom to evacuate himself so he wouldn't die young on his friend's hand.

"So, Uncle Krowell, that's the reason why you want to change your name?"

A gloomy nod.

"K-Kulowelu—" Krom couldn't stop his laughter. Even his youngest brother's deadly glare couldn't do it either.

Ea drank his tea casually, ignoring Krowell's curse on him while excusing himself to take Landkarte back downstairs. And after the dark haired teen disappeared, Krom's laughter stopped slowly. He turned his attention to his youngest brother, smiled innocently at him, and then said, "So you want an easily pronounced name, don't you?" Another gloomy nod came from the silver haired teen. "I have a name already for you; do you want it?"

"Whatever it is, Onii-san."

"What about 'Ayanami'?"

Krowell froze on his midway to drink his tea. He stared at his brother disbelievingly; he did want an easily pronounced name, but that name… A rather girly name, according to his opinion…

"Rejected."

"Eeh?! Why?! You say that you want an easily pronounced name, right? Tiashe, say that name; prove to your wrinkly uncle that it's easily pronounced one!"

"That's not the problem now, Onii-san—"

"Eeh… Uncle Ayanami?"

Fortunately, that name was easily spoken, just like what Krom has said before. Unfortunately, Tiashe said it when Landkarte and Ea were just arrived at the living room—and of course, they heard it clearly.

Ea raised his left eyebrows. A faint yet visible smile appeared on his lips. "What a… 'rather' fitting name for you, Krowell."

"See? Even your brother-in-law agrees with me!"

"Eeh?! So Dad's brother-in-law is Ea-niichan?!"

Kreuz just nodded silently, pitying his younger brother from deepest of his heart before patting Tiashe on his head.

Landkarte, on other side, was wearing his mixture expression again. But since his humorous side won, he ran back to his room so nobody would threw fork at him and stabbed him to death when he was about going to laugh.

"Somehow, Ea, I heard that you say, 'What a girly name' instead of that one."

"No comment for that, I'm going to join Landkarte upstairs. Do you want to join us too, Tiashe?"

This time, Krowell frowned while munching on his cake. "Since when did you start being so ambiguous, Ea?"

Ea blinked—pure and clearly full of surprise. "Huh? Ambiguous?"

"Don't you realize it? 'Joining Landkarte upstairs'…"

The dark haired teen kept silent for a while, thinking about the other meaning of it before Kreuz interrupted, "And when you replied Krom-niisama's question… You know, when he asked you to call him 'Onii-san' too?"

And then, Ea's face became horror purely. He just realized the other meaning of his own words and Landkarte's expression of that time now, after Krowell and Kreuz reminded him and Landkarte's laughter became louder than before. He went immediately upstairs, opened Landkarte's bedroom door harshly, and shouted, "STOP LAUGHING, YOU PERVERT! THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN!" while tickling him—again—to stop his laughter.

"AAAH! SOMEBODY HELP MEE! EA WANTS ME TO DIE IN SWEET DEATH!"

"NOT THAT ONE, YOU PERVERT MORON!"

Downstairs, Kreuz covered his nephew's ear immediately when the youngest residents conversation went horribly ambiguous. Krowell did nothing to solve the problem; he just ate his cake silently, while mentally grumbling about his new nickname from his laughing brother.

But Profe, who knew nothing about the major topic they're talking about and incidentally heard Landkarte's shouting about 'sweet death', screamed hysterically and ran upstairs without caring about Kreuz's strange looks for her…

…to find her 'children' in a very awkward position, Ea's face became very pale, and Landkarte chuckled nervously.

"Um… We can explain this, I suppose?"

And she fainted in nosebleed a second after Landkarte said that.

Back to downstairs again, Krowell swore mentally that he would never go to the orphanage again—not if the result was the changing of his name (again), his friends became far too ambiguous, and someone became a bleeding victim. Never.

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The end.

A/N:

* Kulowelu = Krowell's name is pronounced 'Kuroweru' or 'Kuroveru' in Japanese. And since children can't speak 'r' well… Poor Krowell. #patshim

Got this idea suddenly after thinking about my incidents when visiting orphanage with my friends in elementary school and Krowell a.k.a Ayanami's name. And 'Ea became very ambiguous' thing… that just appeared of all sudden in my mind. (-w-)v

Now, review reply for anonymouse: You're welcome. Thanks for reviewing~! Eh? Went in berserker mode? Why? (OAO) Does this chapter make you wait for a long time? Please forgive me for that one! I was having a mid-semester examination last week, and couldn't touch my laptop before it's finished (rule by: my mighty Mom). \(QvQ)/ And about Zehel… Don't. Not yet. We still need him for the later chapters. So not yet. #patsZehel

Um… Just in case if I never say it, I really am glad and thankful for every reviews that I got. That means soooo much for me. Thank you very much for reviewing (and reading too, for silent readers out there)! (TTvTT)/