Duran-kun and Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater

(featuring the Kuga-Fujino and Munakata family pets)

"Do I really want to know how your ball ended up on top of the roof?"

Duran looked up at Natsuki, letting his tongue loll out of his mouth while he wagged his tail.

"Your 'I'm just a cute, innocent puppy' routine is not going to work on me."

"Natsuki is so stern and demanding."

"Neither is yours," she told her girlfriend. She did not, however, turn around. Shizuru Fujino's puppy-dog eyes and accompanying pout were lethal weapons that put actual dogs to shame.

"Ikezu."

"I am not being a meanie. Especially since I know which one of us is going to have to climb up there."

"Well, Duran is your dog."

"I don't say that Kiyohime is your hydra when I'm untangling her necks."

"When two people make a household together, it is only natural that they divide the labor based on their personal areas of skill and expertise."

"Well, you certainly do an expert job of handling all the sloth and indolence."

"…This is because I had you make the tea twice last night, isn't it?"

"The second of which caused me to get killed right when I was about to beat the end boss on the first try. Never blow in a gamer's ear when she doesn't know that you're there!"

"You had said that you would be done forty-five minutes before then," Shizuru pointed out.

"That was why I went ahead and made you that second cup, because I lost track of the time. But I lost all the progress I'd made during that time, anyway!"

Shizuru's eyes widened.

"Wait, you did?"

"The last save point was fifteen minutes before I was supposed to quit for the evening. It's why I pushed on—you know, the 'oh, I have a little time left; I'll just check out this next area' routine? Okay, next time the runback won't be quite so murderous since I know the route now, but the last twenty minutes were just the boss fight."

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"I did not realize that. I just came into the room and saw you still playing when you had promised to stop, so I teased you. I don't know anything about the game, so I did not recognize that you were doing something important, and didn't stop to think. Kannin na, Natsuki."

"Eh, I should have told you right away instead of fuming at you about it all day." Natsuki rubbed the back of her neck, sheepish. "I was just feeling guilty for leaving you to wait when I'd promised we'd watch that movie together, so I didn't want to snap at you after I'd done something wrong." She paused again, then finished, "I guess we ought to talk about this stuff more often, huh?"

Shizuru nodded.

"I should have come sooner to see what was going on, rather than waiting and getting more and more annoyed with you."

Natsuki sighed.

"I guess that makes us both a couple of prize idiots, huh?"

Shizuru touched her fingertip to her lips.

"Well, our relationship started on the basis of poor communication and foolish, self-indulgent assumptions, so perhaps we are merely being consistent?"

"Promise to never mention this to Nao."

"Of course! I do have a reputation to maintain, after all."

"I hate to break it to you, Shizuru, but our friends pretty much know what you're really like."

"Ara, has Natsuki been telling tales out of school?"

"You know Mai. The government should hire her as an interrogator; she could get the truth out of a rock."

Shizuru gave her girlfriend a slow, teasing smile.

"Under those circumstances, I suppose that Natsuki could persuade me to forgive her."

"Idiot," Natsuki said, but it was completely devoid of any heat at all.

They were reaching in for a kiss, when Duran interrupted them with a couple of quick woofs. After all, it was all well and good that they had cleared up their personal relationship issues, but the main problem was still to be settled, namely that his ball was still up on the roof.

"Oh, yeah, there's still that."

"Do we even own a ladder?" Shizuru wondered. She was definitely not a hammers-and-wrenches kind of person, and the contents of the garage were largely a mystery to her.

"Just the stepladder. I think it's high enough that I can grab the eaves and pull myself up, though."

"That doesn't sound very safe."

"It's not exactly on a level with fighting Orphans and Searrs Foundation troops, you know."

"I would be just as unhappy for you to hurt yourself falling off a roof as if an Orphan bit you."

"That's sweet, but it's not accomplishing household chores."

In the next moment, though, the argument was made moot. There was a loud fluttering of wings, and a crow swept down out of the sky, plucked the ball off the roof in its single claw, and dropped it down next to Duran. The steel wolf barked happily and wagged his tail so furiously that his entire hind end seemed to be wriggling. The bird gave several friendly caws, then banked, twisted, and soared off on his way. Duran pounced on his ball and was soon chewing away.

"All's well that ends well, I guess," Natsuki decided. Duran clearly agreed, given the amount of noise being made by the ball's squeaker.

"Mmm. Yatagarasu was very helpful. But then, it's only proper that he repay favors."

"Oh, yeah," Natsuki remarked. "Duran helped dig him loose when he got his head stuck in that mousehole at the barbecue last year. I've read about how even ordinary corvids are known to feel gratitude and acknowledge debts to people that help them."

Shizuru smirked.

"Ara, so it is not at all surprising that Yatagarasu is a firm believer in the principle of quid pro crow."

"…Are you trying to start another fight?"

~X X X~

A/N: Well, it took eight and two-thirds years to get here, but that's a round 100 chapters completed! Thank you to all of you readers who have stuck around through that time!