"Chores"

Time Frame: This happens before they recruit Mary, when the group is still trying to figure out where they stand without Manato. Recovering. Piecing each other together and becoming whole again.

"You're really bad at this, Haru. Do you want me to help?"

Haruhiro scowled at the teasing note in the redhead's voice and shook his head violently. "I just… Need. A break," he insisted between raspy breaths that had Yume scrunching her face in concern.

He had refused to accept any form of assistance from Moguzo, so allowing Yume to lend him a hand was out of the question entirely. His pride as a man was at stake here and he had a feeling that he will never hear the end of it from the grinning girl if he threw in the proverbial towel.

Oh, he was tempted though. He was stooped over, hands on his knees as he struggled to regain control over his overzealous respiratory system. Beads of sweat constantly dripped into his eyes, blurring and obscuring his vision. He had to stop and wipe at them every few seconds with irritation. His t-shirt was completely soaked, and his body - his arms in particular from the repeated motion of lifting and swinging downwards - ached something fierce. He was sure he was suffering from a minor concussion from how many times his brain had rattled against his skull from the dull impact of the axe he was wielding imbedding itself deeply into the sturdy chopping block.

Thank God it was sturdy, because it would otherwise have succumbed to the punishment Haruhiro had been dishing out for the past few hours.

Yes, you heard right. He had been at it for a few straight hours.

And he was still on his first infuriating log. It resembled more like minced meat by then though, with chips missing here and there from where the axe had made contact but failed to slice it open. Despite all the visible damage done to it, the log still stood tall and unyielding, almost mocking in its determination to mess with the brunet.

But Haruhiro wasn't about to be bested by a scrawny log, damn it.

He had no idea what he was doing wrong, but he was getting close. He could feel it. That stubborn no-good piece of wood was going to give way sooner or later, and he'll be the one to deal that fatal blow that will break its once indomitable will into two pieces, along with its mortal body.

That thought made him smile maniacally.

Yume frowned at him, probably due to the creepy tilt of his lips. She turned to where Moguzo was sitting and shearing off the small protruding branches from the freshly acquired logs with a small hatchet. "How long has he been at this again?"

The warrior scratched his head in a sheepish manner. "Around three hours, I think."

"And he's still on his first log?" Yume asked incredulously.

Haruhiro grumbled to himself. "I'm right here, you know. I can hear the two of you." Maybe I shouldn't have volunteered for wood chopping duty. But Shihoru already took the cleaning duty, and Ranta is off doing God knows what...

Yume laughed while Mozuto merely offered him a slight shrug of his massive shoulders. The stack of firewood ready to be split next to Mozuto was growing in height and width slowly but steadily, a fact which Haruhiro chose to ignore studiously. It was becoming hard, however, considering it was starting to creep into the edges of his vision.

Well, he would just have to quicken his pace then. He was done playing around. Feeling Yume's eyes on him, Haruhiro took a deep breath and yelled out a battle cry like a brave knight charging into war. The brunet hoisted the axe in his hand up into the air with both hands, his eyes pinned on the offending log in front of him that had evaded its demise for way too long. Once his choice of weapon reached the highest point of the arc above his head, Haruhiro swung it down with all the strength he possessed and watched in gleeful anticipation for the log to –

Fall sideways and roll off the chopping block, the axe barely grazing its intended target, peeling off just a thin strip of bark that floated away in the warm afternoon breeze with a languidness that Haru did not feel.

The sound of Yume bursting into laughter was normally music to his ears, but the situation was slightly different this time and he just felt like strangling the very life out of her. He swivelled on the spot and glared at the redhead clutching her stomach while rolling around on the grass. "It's not funny, Yume!"

His protest merely sent her into another round of laughter. She was chortling so hard tears were being squeezed out of the corner of her eyes. Mozuto glanced at them with the ghost of a smile and gave him a barely imperceptible shake of his head to convey his disappointment before returning to his task at hand.

Haruhiro sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

Yume took a few seconds to collect herself, that nettling curve of her lips lingering even after she regained her composure. She ambled over and petted him on his head in a patronizing way that had him folding his arms and staring at her with the most murderous look he could manage. It clearly wasn't too terrifying, as she giggled and poked the side of his cheek with her index finger. "You can't pull off angry, Haru. You just look ridiculously cute."

He couldn't help it; he blushed. "C-Cute?"

She nodded cheerfully, her pigtails bouncing up and down as she did so. "Yeah! You're blushing too."

"Am I? Must be the heat and all that wood-chopping." Or lack thereof.

"Nuh-uh." Yume wagged her finger disapprovingly – the exact one that had poked him in the cheek – and pouted. "You're lying. You're embarrassed because I called you cute right?"

Haru didn't know what to say, so he just stared at her as she looked at him expectantly, waiting for a reply that will never come. She was always so easy-going and full of life, sometimes he felt like it's hard to keep up with her, but he guessed that's part of her charm. He quite liked it, if he was to be honest with himself. He liked how she brightened gloomy situations with her contagious spirit and vigour. He liked how she always spoke her mind, even if sometimes she ended up blurting out something offending or undeniably silly. And most of all, he liked how she looked at him like he's her source of happiness, because she was definitely the brightest spot in his life as well.

"Haru?" Yume prompted with her head cocked to one side as she peered at him curiously. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Sorry, I was just thinking of… something else."

"What? Tell me!" She jumped up and down twice before a frown marred her pretty features as something occurred to her. "Wait. Why are you thinking of something else when I'm talking to you? Am I that disinteresting?" Yume leaned forward until her face was centimetres away from his, her lips pulled into a tight line with displeasure. "Huh? Haru? Do I bore you?"

Haru took a step back, holding out his hands in a pacifying gesture. "No, of course not! That's not what I meant!"

"Then what got you so distracted, huh?"

"Uhm…" He couldn't tell her what he was thinking – he wasn't comfortable enough with her yet. He might actually die from mortification. Was it possible? He didn't want to find out. "I… It's a secret."

Yume poked him in the chest once. Twice. Thrice. "So we're" – poke – "keeping secrets from" – poke – "each other now?" Poke.

Haru was moving backwards as the redhead advanced menacingly with her extended index finger threatening to erode a path through his chest. His hands were held up in a signal of surrender in the air, not that it mattered to Yume. "You're getting this all wrong!"

"Then explain it to me!"

"I can't!"

"Then I'm going to tickle you until you do!"

Without any further warning, she tackled him to the ground, the both of them landing in a messy tangle of limbs atop a pile of leaves. Yume proceeded to make good on her promise, ignoring his high-pitched pleas of mercy. Straddling him and using her body weight to hold Haru down, she utilized her advantageous position to the fullest and mercilessly targeted his weak spots, causing Haru to writhe about futilely with laughter in an attempt to escape her searching hands.

"S-Stop! I… ahh, give up!"

"Are you going to tell me what you were thinking?"

"No, I can't – "

"Then no, I'm not stopping!"

"But I'm not done with chopping the – "

"After you tell me your secret, Haru, and not a second sooner."

Mozuto looked over from where he was sitting at the pair goofing off, the air saturated with their breathless laughter, empty threats and an occasional squealing that could very well be mistaken as a dying piglet. They didn't look like they would be stopping anytime soon, he thought with a wry twitch of his lips, and night was falling soon. He glanced at the chopping board and then to the furnace totally devoid of any chopped firewood before his gaze went back to Haruhiro and Yume, the latter now trying to suffocate the former with a large leaf over his face.

So much for helping with the chores.

A/N: I'll just like to say a huge thank you to those who've reviewed and asked for me to continue. So, here you go. What I'll do is change this story into a compilation of short stories that follow the anime's storyline. Unfortunately, from what I've heard, in the actual anime, Haru isn't interested in Yume (not that there's much progress romance-wise in the LN, but from whatever hints have been given, the pairing is NOT going to be harume, which makes me sad) so I might have to make alterations when that time comes about. Anywho, enjoy this short chapter of how I've always imagined Yume and Haru to be like together!

Please leave a review if you're enjoying this story. It'll tell me if I should continue or not. (Hopefully y'all like it, since I enjoy writing this alot :P) Thank you for reading!