AN: Really sorry about this chapter coming out so late. I know that I said that the next chapter would be out on the 12th and it is now coming out an entire week later.

If any of you are curious as to why this chapter was so late, simply put, this is by far the most amount of time I've spent on a single chapter of this fic, it's not even close. Around three quarters of the way through writing the original version of this chapter, I sorta just realised that most of what I'd written so far was just... kinda boring. It wasn't bad or anything, I just didn't find it all that interesting or engaging, and didn't want to release something like that.

I ended up deleting around 80% of what I had at the time and decided to change a few things around in my plans to make what I think turned out to be a far more interesting chapter. All in all, there's probably at least 6-7k (maybe even 8k) deleted or rewritten words for this chapter alone, so I hope you can understand why this chapter ended up taking a little longer than usual.

Thank you for being patient, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter.

- Chapter 8: A Search For This Unexceptional Abode! -

Aqua groaned as she slowly pushed the door ajar, leading out of one the many guest rooms in the Dustiness mansion and into a winding hallway. By that point, it was already coming close to noon. Aqua had gotten up early today, well, early for her, at least. Every other resident of the house had been awake for the past three hours at the bare minimum, with the mansion's earliest risers having already been up for almost six hours, but Aqua didn't really care all that much, she was a guest, after all.

Clad in only a pair of shorts and a crop top, she began stumbling down the hall. She couldn't be bothered to change into anything else, but maybe she'd consider changing later, if she didn't end up going straight back to bed. Her stay with Darkness - or, as everyone else in the house called her, Lalatina - so far had certainly been an enjoyable one. Never before in her life had Aqua lived in such an illustrious home or had the same kind of twenty-four seven access to such incredible services and facilities. After living on the streets - and later on, in that tiny little apartment with Kazuma - for so long, getting to stay in a real mansion with real maids felt like the least that someone like her deserved.

Though, at the same time, she couldn't help but feel just a teensy bit bad for Kazuma. While she got to laze around in a mansion for two weeks, he was staying over with that middle schooler friend of his, whose name Aqua may or may not have momentarily forgotten, and having to spend his time looking for a new apartment for them to stay at. Although, as far as she was aware, he hadn't actually made all that much progress in that aspect yet. Well, whatever, Kazuma would figure something out in the end, so there was no point in her worrying about it.

But, maybe, if the opportunity arose, she'd find some way to make things right with him. Y'know, just to clear her guilty conscience, that's all.

"Ah, miss Aqua, good morning," One of the maids, the one who'd seemingly been assigned to keep an eye on Aqua, noticed her as she rounded the corner into the large dining room, "It's rather unusual to see you up at this time. Did you just wake up, or have you not yet gone to sleep?".

"I just woke up!" The blue haired girl proudly proclaimed, perhaps a little louder than she'd intended, "I felt like getting up early today."

"I see, that's wonderful, miss Aqua," Her maid politely replied, the ever so slight strain in her smile going entirely unnoticed to the ever-oblivious Aqua, "I assume you're here for your breakfast now?".

"That's correct! I'm starving right now, y'know?".

"And would you like it to be brought to your room again this time?" Her maid continued.

"Of course!" Aqua nodded enthusiastically, smiling widely at the maid.

She politely smiled back, giving the other girl a small nod, "And would I also be correct in assuming that you'd like a large glass of the most expensive wine we have to go alongside your breakfast?".

"Oh you know me so well," The blue eyed NEET continued cheerily grinning, "Ah, how I wish I could stay here forever!".

Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't hurt to try asking if she could permanently move here one more time.

To Megumin's immense relief, it seemed that her little sister couldn't care less about the scene she walked in on, especially when she was far too focused on something much more important; her appetite. Despite that, she still had a terrible sneaking suspicion that Komekko would end up telling her mother all about what she'd walked in on. If she bothered to remember it, that was.

Of course, she did get a few odd looks sent her way by the young girl, and even a 'What were you doing with big brother?' when Kazuma left to use the bathroom, all of which Megumin decided to silence with the only thing that she knew would work on her little sister, food. Luckily, everything seemed to have returned to normal by the time the three of them sat down to eat, with Komekko far too busy tucking into her lunch to even think about the other two people at the table with her.

Once lunch was over, Megumin watched her little sister drag Kazuma out of the room to go play with her while Megumin herself was busy getting started on the washing up. Part of her considered stopping Komekko from taking him away, if only so that Kazuma could help her with the dishes, but it didn't take long for her to concede and let just her sister have her fun.

After Megumin had finished cleaning up from lunch, the three of them ventured out into their backyard. Well, maybe calling it their backyard was a bit presumptuous, since, as far as Megumin was aware, her parents didn't actually own that area of land themselves, it was just that no one else had ever used it anyway. The area in question was simply just a small clearing around twenty yards away from their house, sporting a natural pond and a sand pit that Megumin and Komekko's father had constructed for his eldest child many years ago.

"Big sis, look!" Komekko called out as she peered into the small pond, "There are even more fishies in here now!".

"Actually, Komekko," Kazuma spoke up, moving over to observe the pond's inhabitants himself, "I'm pretty sure that most of those smaller ones are tadpoles, not fish."

The small girl turned to him with a confused look, "Tad…poles?".

"Yeah, Kazuma's right, surprisingly," Megumin nodded her head as she finally made her way over to the other two, "Those are tadpoles. Huh, they're new."

"Oi, 'surprisingly'!? What exactly is so surprising about that to you?".

Softly giggling at his reaction, she crouched down to be level with her little sister, "Tadpoles are like little baby frogs. That's what they look like before they've properly grown into the normal frogs that you've seen before."

Komekko gazed down into the shallow water before suddenly lighting up, "Hmm… I want one!"

"Y-you… want one?".

Before the two sisters could continue their back and forth, Kazuma, who had wandered over to the sand pit, spoke up, "Pfft! Oi, Megumin, is this what I think it is?".

"H-huh?" Her head snapped towards the teen, seeing an all-too-familiar object in his hands. It was the large tree branch that, a few years ago, Megumin had converted into her 'magic staff', having ineptly whittled it into shape using a particularly sharp rock she'd found at the time. She blushed in pure humiliation as Kazuma started waving it around, poorly imitating some of her old poses, "Y-yes, it's exactly what you think it is, Kazuma! Now j-just quit it already!".

"No offence," The brunette stated, letting up on the poses, much to Megumin's relief, "But I'd remembered your 'magic staff' looking a little better than this."

Before Megumin, who was currently hiding her beet-red head in one of her hands and angrily gesturing at him with the other, could make her own scolding response, Komekko waddled over to Kazuma and looked over the tree branch a few times. "What are you doing with my big stick?".

"Huh?" He stared down at the little girl in surprise, "Your… big stick?".

"Yeah! My big stick," She grinned widely, taking the tree branch from Kazuma, "Big sis gave me her big stick to play with a while ago. She said that it was 'too em-barry-sing' for her to have it, so it's mine now."

"Ah, well, that 'big stick' is actually your big sister's m-".

"R-right! How about we d-do something fun together, now?" Megumin hastily scurried over to the other two, taking Komekko's free hand and pulling her away, "Why don't we go get the fish bags and catch some little fishies in the pond with Kazuma, Komekko?".

Her mood instantly flipped at that, quickly forgetting about the large branch and dropping it onto the grass. "Yay! Catching fishies!".

"But remember that we're gonna release them afterwards, okay? No trying to eat them this time, not even the tasty-looking ones." She quickly added on, her little sister deflating a little before perking up again and marching towards their house.

Kazuma smirked as he followed behind them at his own, much more leisurely, pace. It was pretty hard to deny that, by this point, he'd certainly grown to enjoy the two sisters' antics.

All things considered, Megumin wouldn't exactly describe herself as the girliest of girls. Not to say that was averse towards such a thing, or that she thought she was lacking in femininity. No, it was more so just that she would never consider herself to be some shining paragon of what most would probably consider 'girliness'. Which was something that, all things considered, didn't usually bother her all that much.

She'd bought makeup once, maybe twice, in her entire life and, besides brushing her frizzy bed hair in place in the mornings and making use of her mom's hair straighteners every other day, she didn't usually spend too long on her hair most mornings. And she certainly wasn't the type of girl to muffle her happy squeals into her pillow as she excitedly kicked her legs around in the air, all because of a boy that she was in love with.

Well, at least, she thought that she wasn't. Yet, the moment Kazuma had left for his shift at the café, she'd found herself running straight to her bedroom to do exactly that.

Another muffled 'Heeeeee!' left Megumin's mouth as her legs began to burn off the waves of nervous energy she'd accrued over the past couple of hours. Her hands hastily moved from clutching at the blanket of her futon to being wrapped around her pillow, hugging it into her face. She may or may not have been pretending that the pillow was Kazuma. Sure, it didn't really feel or smell anything like her new boyfriend, but it was just about good enough of a substitute to let her thoughts run wild once again.

Simply put, Megumin was beyond ecstatic at the results of the previous night.

She rolled onto her side, still tightly hugging her pillow. Honestly, she was pretty embarrassed by her own current actions, but those feelings were easily overpowered by the warm, fuzzy feeling deep that had made its home deep in her core.

There had been many different times before, where she had envisioned similar scenarios in her head, many of them not being all too far off from what had actually happened the night before. Yet, not a single one of them had properly prepared her for what it would really be like. Megumin rolled over onto her other side and then threw the blanket over herself for warmth. She was starting to feel a whole lot colder now that she was missing the feeling of Kazuma's arms keeping her warm.

The deep, jittery feeling in her chest still hadn't gone away, it hadn't gone away at all since she'd woken up that morning, actually. Truthfully, it felt a little uncomfortable at times, leaving her the slightest bit uneasy and uncomfortable, but even so, she didn't want the feeling to go away for even a second. It felt like proof. She wasn't exactly sure what it was proof of specifically, but it was proof of something, something important.

Megumin couldn't wait for Kazuma's shift to be over. That much, she was certain of.

"Oi, chief," Kazuma leaned back, away from her, his face scrunched up in a mix of unease and irritation, "What's up with that look? You're starting to look like a creep."

It had been only fifteen minutes, perhaps closer to twenty by that point, since Kazuma had entered the café. In that short amount of time, the frequent glances his boss would send his way had not gone unnoticed by him. He knew that look, she definitely wanted something from him, something troublesome. But as for what exactly it was, he had no idea. It hadn't taken long for him to grow impatient and face the older girl head on.

"Hmm, whatever do you mean, helper?" She - predictably - feigned complete ignorance, as if they both didn't know exactly what she was doing.

The high schooler rolled his eyes. He doubted that coaxing whatever it was out of her would be an easy task. "Oh, nothing, never mind," Kazuma slowly shrugged, leaning against the front counter, "But, anyway, shouldn't you be in the back right now? You are supposed to be manning the kitchen at the moment, aren't you?".

"Mhm, that's right, helper," Chris nodded sagely, catching the boy a little off guard, "But I just finished up the last of our outstanding orders for right now, so there's no harm in waiting out front with you until we get a new order, don'tcha think?".

Kazuma groaned. He could tell that she was having fun with this.

A few seconds passed, and just as Kazuma was about to say something, Chris spoke up again, her tone even more excitable than before, "Hey, helper, we're friends, right?".

The brunette tilted his head, curious as to what she was getting at, but deciding to humour her question with an actual answer, regardless, "...Hmm, yeah, I guess so. I mean, you are my boss too, but we've hung out outside of work a few times, so I'd probably consider you a friend."

"Great~" Her mouth formed into her signature mischievous grin, alerting Kazuma to his imminent danger, "So, if something big happened to you recently, let's say, you finally got a girlfriend, for example, you'd be telling me all about it, right?".

His eyes went wide for a second, before he immediately returned his expression to a neutral look. Or at least, what he hoped was a neutral look. 'How the hell does she already know about that?'.

Kazuma knew Chris well enough to know that this obviously wasn't just a case of some god-like convenient timing on her behalf. Somehow, she definitely knew about last night, and about him and Megumin. But, how?

He began to rack his brain, searching for any possible way Chris could've found out about what happened. As far as Kazuma knew, the only people who were aware of him and Megumin being together, besides him and Megumin themselves, were Komekko and possibly Megumin's mother; he still wasn't fully sure about how much Megumin had actually told her mother.

But, obviously, neither of them would offer any explanation as to why Chris seemingly knew about last… night…

Wait.

Last night. Last night, when Megumin had visited him at the café, he distinctly remembered one specific moment. A moment where, as he was coming back from delivering orders, he noticed an exceptionally red-faced Megumin and an even cheerier than usual Chris whispering to each other about something. It had stayed somewhere within the back of his mind ever since then, having been fairly unconvinced by the explanation Megumin had given him at the time. But, if they had actually been talking about…

Things were starting to make a lot more sense to Kazuma now.

"Oi…" Kazuma leaned in towards the older girl, now being his turn to send her a devious look of his own, "Quick change of subject, chief. I've been wondering, what exactly was it that you and Megumin were whispering about behind my back yesterday?".

He watched as her eyes briefly widened, a look of realisation washing across her face a moment later, before her face formed back into a smirk, not too dissimilar to Kazuma's own reaction from a few minutes earlier. "Sure, I'll tell you, helper," Chris rested her head against one of her hands, her smirk still persisting, "But you have to answer my question first, it's only fair."

Kazuma let out a small 'tch' sound as he clicked his tongue, they were at an impasse. Both of them were pretty sure that they knew the answer to their respective question, yet both of them wanted to hear it directly from the other person. Loudly sighing, Kazuma eventually gave in.

"Well, funny you ask that, chief," He said, as dryly as physically possible, "Because, as it happens, chief, I just got a …girlfriend. Actually, it was just last night. Can you believe that timing?". Kazuma couldn't help but snort a little as he finished speaking, breaking his act.

"Really?" Chris could no longer contain her excitement, a wide smile breaking out on her face, "Ah, I'm so relieved to hear that! Now I won't have to ask you out on a pity date any time soon."

His eyebrow twitched, "Oi, what exactly did you just say? Repeat what you just said, right now."

The silver haired girl chose to completely ignore him, giggling at the irritated glare he sent her way, "Oh, to answer your question now, last night, your girlfriend and I were simply just talking about how she was going to confess her love to you. Pretty interesting stuff, huh?".

Kazuma sharply turned his head away from the girl, scowling deeply in an attempt to hide the soft blush on his cheeks, "I seriously hate you, chief."

Upon opening the door to his temporary residence, it didn't take Kazuma long to locate Megumin, finding her playing video games in the front room, hunched forwards on the couch. She was so focused on the game that she didn't even take note of his presence until he dropped down onto the couch beside her, causing the girl to jump and snap her head in his direction, smiling as she realised who it was.

"You're supposed to avoid those," Kazuma unhelpfully commented as Megumin's sudden loss of concentration led to her character running head first into a hazard, before shaking his head once she tried navigating around the object, "Don't bother trying to get around it, it looks like you're supposed to just jump over it."

"Hello to you too," She replied sarcastically, leaning against him and turning her focus back to the game, "it's not as easy as it looks, I'll have you know. The controls are all super weird and stuff, just moving around feels all slippery."

"Huh, well I'm not sure what else you were expecting from some cheap licensed game," Kazuma did his best to avoid reacting to her position, instead focusing his attention onto the screen, continuing their current conversation, "Still, I think I can kinda see what you mean. That jump especially looks really… wonky."

And so, the next few minutes were taken up by Megumin voicing her complaints about the game while Kazuma added in his own thoughts, usually trying to explain what he assumed to be the technical reasons for her gripes. It was only when her character finally died, to something that she described as 'completely unfair', that the dark haired girl's focus slid away from the screen and instead to the boy she was leaning against, looking up at him with a soft smile.

"...What?" He asked once he took notice of her staring, regarding her with scepticism.

Instead of responding verbally, she took a deep breath, her cheeks growing redder by the second, before she suddenly brought her hands up to Kazuma's shoulders for support and moved herself upwards to bring her face closer to his, gazing into his eyes.

Her face stayed there for a few seconds, feeling Kazuma's warm breath against her face as he stared at her, his eyes going from wide open to expectant as they both remained completely motionless. After around ten more seconds of just staring into each other's eyes, Kazuma's eyebrows furrowed as his expression turned into one of confusion.

"...Well? ".

"W-well?" Megumin repeated, a nervous smile making its way onto her features.

The boy's eyebrows only furrowed further as his mouth hung ever so slightly ajar, "Aren't you g-gonna, like, do something?".

"M-me?" Her eyes wandered away from his gaze in embarrassment, "I thought that you were gonna d-do something, not me!".

"What? But you were the one who started it!" Kazuma suddenly stopped and shook his head a few times before speaking again, fake confidence oozing from his voice, "I see, well, if you're really that shy about kissing now that I'm up close, I guess I-I'll have to do it instead."

He internally prayed that she wouldn't draw attention to the way his voice cracked near the end.

To his surprise, Megumin simply sent him a small nod and tightened her grip on his shoulders, though not anywhere near enough to be painful. "I'm n-not that shy about it, just… I'd like it if you did it, l-like earlier. Before we got… y'know… interrupted."

No complete denial or prideful comeback to his obvious challenge, just an honest admission. Kazuma hadn't been expecting that reaction, he suddenly couldn't help but start to feel a lot more nervous himself as he gazed into the pair of shimmering crimson orbs that made up Megumin's pupils.

But still, if Megumin wasn't gonna do anything herself this time…

"So h-how do I…? I guess I'll just… like this…yeah," Kazuma muttered to himself as he reached his hands out and feebly cupped Megumin's cheeks, feeling her melt into his touch. Her cheeks were warm against his palms. "Ah, actually, maybe we should s-sit in a more comfortable position for this instead, o-or maybe we should stand up? W-whadda you think?".

"Uhm, y-yeah, the first option sounds like a good idea," She responded in a small voice, equal parts tense, excited and antsy, "Hold on, uhm, I'll… I'll sit on your l-lap, okay?".

He didn't say anything, instead choosing to swiftly nod his head before letting go of her and readjusting his position on the couch. Not wanting to delay any further, Megumin scurried over to Kazuma and carefully climbed onto his lap, tossing her arms around his neck for support.

The high schooler wrapped one of his arms around the small of her back, making sure that there was no chance of her accidentally falling backwards off of him. His other hand went up to her cheek, an action that, from what he could tell, seemed to put the girl at ease. Although really, she wasn't really the one who needed to be put at ease.

No. Once he started, it'd be fine, he just had to take that first step and the rest would be easy.

There was no way he'd be able to continue their unspoken staring contest without losing his nerve, he just knew it. Throwing all caution to the wind, and without giving himself any time to start overthinking it, Kazuma pulled her in ever further and rammed his lips directly into hers.

Megumin cried out in surprise, her voice being muffled by Kazuma's lips. Instinctively, she almost pulled away, but the moment her brain properly recognised what was happening, she returned his kiss without hesitation, her hands moving to hold the sides of his face. At some point, the hand that had once been tenderly caressing her cheek had moved over to the back of Megumin's head, occasionally clutching at - and subsequently releasing - fistfuls of her locks.

Losing herself in the moment, Megumin parted her lips further and opened her mouth, her tongue instantly speeding out to weakly slap against the underside of Kazuma's top lip. Not taking long to catch on to what she wanted, he pressed his lips even further into hers and granted her access into his mouth, her tongue quickly making contact with his own. Their tongues awkwardly rubbed against each other for a few moments, neither of them being accustomed to such a feeling, before they began to aggressively entangle with each other, as if it was some kind of battle between the two tongues.

Eventually, much to her chagrin, Megumin had to pull away, breathless. Kazuma put up a fight at first, his hand still keeping her close, but once he realised that she was trying to move back, he let her slowly lean backwards, a long rope of saliva still connecting one pair of lips with the other. Panting heavily, Megumin stared into his eyes for a few seconds before leaning forwards and letting her chin fall onto Kazuma's right shoulder, her arms loosely thrown around him in a loose, yet affectionate, embrace.

"Haah… That was… a lot… longer… than the first… haah one," Megumin mumbled into his ear, her heart beating loud and fast, so loud that she was almost certain that Kazuma could hear it.

"Y-yeah," Was all Kazuma said in response, his hands awkwardly resting on her shoulders, craning his neck back to get a better look at her, "Are you… seriously that out of breath?".

"Sh-shut up," She assaulted his back with a few tiny punches, receiving a soft tug on her hair in response, "Oww, Kazumaaa… Don't pretend like you're not out of breath, too."

"I never said that I wasn't," The hand that had just tugged on her hair began to gently caress the back of her head, "And don't act like that actually hurt."

Megumin simply let out a small 'Hmph!' sound, lazily rubbing circles into the boy's back, until Kazuma let out a loud yawn and stretched. Or, he stretched as much as he could with a girl sitting directly on his lap. He awkwardly fumbled around with his left hand until he managed to grab his phone from his pocket, pulling up the home screen in order to take a look at the time.

"Oh, it's actually later than I thought," Kazuma offhandedly commented, feeling Megumin shift her weight on top of him the smallest amount, "Well, I'm pretty tired from my shift earlier, so I'm probably gonna head off to bed now. G'night."

Just as he moved his hands back to her shoulders, in order to carefully move her off of him, he felt Megumin fleetingly clutch at the back of his t-shirt before letting go, then repeating the motion two more times, inaudibly mumbling something into his ear. His questioning gaze quickly met her own sheepish expression, an unsure smile making its way onto her lips.

"...You good?".

"Ah, uhm, Kazuma," She began, her cheeks quickly reddening, "I was thinking about l-last night - when we slept t-together - and, um, well…".

Laying down in bed, the atmosphere was admittedly still a little bit awkward. Not unbearably so, but enough for Kazuma to feel fairly apprehensive. While they'd each obviously - or, in his opinion, unfortunately - gone to separate rooms to change into their tracksuits, they'd ended up brushing their teeth and getting into bed at the same time.

With his eyes finally adjusting to the darkness, he managed to make out Megumin's form as she shuffled towards him under the bedsheets, her small arms embracing him a few moments later. Under the expectant gaze of her bright red eyes, he slowly returned her motion, pulling her a bit closer into him. Almost instinctively, one of his hands went directly up to her hair, gently brushing and twirling it between his fingertips, hearing a content sigh in response. It didn't take long for her to bury her face into his chest, affectionately nuzzling her head against him.

"...So, is, uh, is she sleeping here too?" Kazuma questioned the other teen, nodding his head in the direction of Chomusuke, who was curled up on the blanket a few inches away from the two.

"Mhm, yeah, I guess so," She responded from her place in his arms, "That's not an issue for you, i-is it? I promise that she's a very well behaved girl, she won't wake you up in the middle of the night or anything/."

"Nah, it's not an issue. I like her," Kazuma momentarily removed his hand from Megumin's hair to instead give the small feline a few seconds of affectionate petting, "I was just curious."

"That's good to hear," The older teen heard her say into his chest. After a couple more seconds of running his digits through Chomusuke's soft fur, he felt one of Megumin's hands reach out and grab onto his own, swiftly guiding it back to her own hair. He couldn't help but be amused by the fact that she was seriously fighting for his attention against her own pet cat.

Although, he wasn't at all surprised to realise that he enjoyed petting Megumin ever so slightly more. Not that he'd ever tell Chomusuke that much, of course.

After a minute or so of cuddling in comfortable silence, Megumin suddenly spoke up. "K-kazuma, Kazuma," She pulled her head back to briefly stare up into his eyes, "Um, I was just w-wondering, how do you f-feel abou-".

*Bzzt!*.

"...It's my phone," Kazuma pointed out after a second or so of silence, staring over at the small light on the bedside table, just behind Megumin.

She dramatically rolled her eyes, "I could tell."

*Bzzt!*.

The green eyed teen sighed and let go of Megumin, much to her disappointment, if the small pout indicated anything. "Can you check it for me?" Kazuma asked her as he tried and failed to reach over her, unintentionally pushing his body directly into her in the process, "If it's just some random notification, ignore it."

"O-okay," Was all she mumbled once he'd moved back, observing her red-hot face with a raised eyebrow. Embarrassed, the dark haired teen quickly rolled over and grabbed his phone, tapping the power button and squinting a little as she readjusted her eyes to the sudden brightness.

She stared at the screen for a few seconds, looking at the two new notifications. "Two new texts from someone called 'Darknesstina'. Oh, that's probably Darkness, isn't it?" Megumin rolled over to once again face Kazuma, getting an 'Mhm' and an affirmative nod in response, "What's up with the 'tina' at the end?".

Kazuma thought about it for a second before replying, "I… don't think I'm allowed to tell you that, probably,".

"You can't just be all mysterious about it and not actually tell me!" Her complaints were promptly ignored, as he reached out to take his phone from her, "Ah, s-surely I get special access to secrets like this, due to, uhm, y'know…".

"Not at all," The boy flatly stated, unlocking his phone as he began reading through the messages.

"C'mon," She whined, absentmindedly brushing her bangs back, "If you tell me all of your secrets, I'll tell you all of mine, too!".

'And what interesting secrets do you have, exactly?' He mentally questioned the other teen.

Despite that, Kazuma still seemingly mulled over her offer for a few seconds, before donning an off-putting expression, "Fine then. I have been wondering about something recently. Are you an A or a B? You're definitely one of those two, for sure, but I can't exactly tell which one. It's probably A, right?"

"A or B…?" Megumin repeated, bringing a finger up to rest against her cheek, "What, you mean like, my blood type…? And why are you so sure that I'm only one of those two?".

The other teen sharply exhaled through his nose, as if he was amused by something. "Nothing. Never mind," He dismissively waved it off, switching off his phone and placing it onto the other nightstand, before complaining aloud to himself, "Seriously though, can Aqua not go a single day there without causing problems for the maids?".

"M-maids?" The girl exclaimed, reminding Kazuma of the fact that she had no idea about the fact that 'Darkness' was actually some filthy rich guy's daughter, a piece of information he was preeetty sure that he was supposed to keep a secret, "Do they seriously have, like, real maids there? H-how?".

"Uhh, w-well, I didn't mean like proper 'maid' maids, y'know?" He attempted to lie, actually doing a better job than he'd anticipated, "It's just referring to, uhm, to house cleaners. They apparently aren't really as expensive as you'd think."

"Still, isn't it a waste of money to pay other people to clean your house for you?" Megumin, frugal as ever, commented, "Just do it yourself. Sure, it's kinda tedious to do, but it's not that hard."

Being a fellow penny-pincher himself, Kazuma actually found himself agreeing with her point. Although, getting himself a group of maids was still very much in the picture for him if he did end up becoming filthy rich in the near future.

"Mhm, I guess you've got a point," He commented, "But something like that really is a very 'Megumin' thing to say."

"I-I hope that's not supposed to be an insult," Megumin quietly told him, shuffling back towards him so that they could return to their previous position. As soon as she felt his arms circle around her, Megumin once again snuggled herself into him.

"Oh, by the way," Kazuma spoke up, the topic of Aqua and Darkness having reminded him of a different - probably more important - subject, "I was just thinking, um, I'm probably gonna go out searching for apartments again tomorrow. I feel like I'm already cutting things close enough as is."

Truthfully, the idea that he might not find somewhere to live in time for Aqua and Darkness' return was one that worried him a bit, but the fact that he still had a week until that happened served to eliminate any real anxiety. That being said, if he didn't do something about it soon, he might actually be in real trouble. So, as much as he wanted to push it to the last minute, getting it out of the way as soon as possible might be in his best interests.

Megumin's hand glided through his hair. "Mhm, that's probably for the best," She nodded, moving her head from Kazuma's chest up to his pillow, with only a few inches between their faces, "You might have to wait a few days before being allowed to move in anyway, so we really should try to find somewhere sooner rather than later."

A thoughtful look adorned the boy's face, considering her words. He hadn't even thought about the fact that he might have to wait a few days before he could technically move into wherever he was renting, something that only served to bring out his sense of urgency.

"Are you sure that Komekko won't mind coming along, though?" Kazuma inquired, having only just considered the fact that they'd most likely have to take her with them, "If not, I could probably just go on my own while you look after her back here."

"I don't see any reason why she wouldn't want to come along," There was a short moment of silence as she lowered her head a small amount so that Kazuma's hand was now at her scalp, "And if she gets tired, I can just take her home while you keep searching. Or I'll just carry her, whatever she prefers."

"Huh. Well, if you say so," He shrugged, letting his eyes flutter shut as he allowed his head to sink into the pillow, "If that's all, then I'mma go to sleep now; I'm actually feeling pretty tired. Night, Megumin."

"Yeah. Good night, Kazuma," Megumin whispered back, a wave of embarrassment seeping into her head as she realised how… casual their conversation had just been, despite the glaring fact that they were both sleeping in the same bed with only an inch or so between them.

Slowly shaking her head, as to not disturb Kazuma, she did her best to clear the thoughts from her head. Though, the soft darkening she could barely make out on her boyfriend's own cheeks clued her into the fact that there was a chance that he might have been going through a similar thought process to her.

Kazuma felt Megumin's arms extend even further around him, pulling the two of them even closer together. He cracked open a single eye to see if she was planning on doing anything, just to be met by her peaceful visage right in front of his face, her eyes closed shut. Slowing his brushes though her hair and allowing his arm to go limp around her back, Kazuma felt himself slowly begin to drift off to sleep.

"H-h-hold on now!" After a minute or so of complete serenity, Megumin suddenly shot up, "'A or B', seriously!? You were totally talking about my c-cup size, w-weren't you!? Gah, why are you like this!?".

"...And so, today, we're gonna go out and help look for a new apartment for him to live in, does that sound okay?" Megumin asked as she finished explaining everything to her little sister.

"Huh…?" Komekko looked up at the taller of the two girls, tilting her head in confusion, "Why does big brother need to find a new home? He already lives here."

Megumin flinched back in surprise, "H-he's not living here forever, Komekko!".

The young girl, who had clearly been thinking otherwise, turned to face the third resident of the kitchen, who had just walked in, "Don't worry big brother, I can make a new house for you when big sis kicks you out."

"I-I'm not kicking anyone out," The older sibling protested, hopelessly flailing her arms in the air, "Kazuma, please tell her that I'm not gonna kick you out!".

Kazuma crouched down in front of the small girl, sending her a grateful smile, "Well, at least I know that even if your big sister has turned against me, you'll always be on my side, Komekko."

"Kazumaaa! Stop encouraging her!".

"Finding a home for big brother. Finding a home for big brother," Komekko chanted under her breath as she, alongside Chomusuke scoured the surrounding area, her hand to her forehead, "...What about that? You can live there, can't you?".

Kazuma's gaze followed where the small girl was pointing, squinting his eyes as he noticed what she was focused on. "You want me to live… in that tree?" He asked her, a little curious as to if she'd actually have a real answer.

"Yep!" She eagerly nodded, clearly believing that she had made a great suggestion, "It's right next to our house, so you can come and give me lots of yummy treats every single day."

"Please don't just use Kazuma to get free food," Megumin reprimanded her little sister, mumbling something under her breath about 'her mother's bad influence'.

"Hmm, okay," She turned back to the teenage boy, pointing directly up at him, "You can come over and give me treats and teach me new games every single day."

He raised an eyebrow and sent her a strained smile as they continued on past the tree, fiddling with the strap of the bag that was currently thrown over his shoulder, very much out of the ravenous girl's reach, "Is that… supposed to be a good thing?".

"Of course!" Komekko waved her hands high above her head, "You still need to teach me all about 'gamber-ling'."

"Hey," Kazuma felt a pair of eyes staring into the back of his head as a familiar hand tightly latched itself to his wrist, "What kinds of things have you been teaching her, exactly?".

"...Uh, nothing. Oh, hey," The boy tried his best, and failed, to discreetly pry her hand away as he pointed at a nearby street sign with his free hand, hoping to avoid any further questioning about his… teachings, "Since we went out past the bus stop last time, it'd probably be best to check around in this direction for now. If we somehow don't find anything here, then we'll just check in the other direction from your house. Though I'm not sure if we'd have much luck over there, anyway."

"I'm little disappointed that you're only acting this responsible in an attempt to get me to forget about the fact that you've apparently been teaching my little sister about gambling," Megumin commented, making Kazuma physically flinch at how on the mark she had unfortunately been, "But either way, I agree. That seems like a good idea."

He still found himself being surprised by how the girl's face could go from a disapproving frown to a radiant smile in practically an instant.

"Seriously, I didn't actually teach her about gambling," Kazuma felt the need to clarify, before reflecting on his most recent 'playtime' with Komekko, awkwardly scratching at his cheek in a habit he'd began to pick up from his boss, "Well, maybe, I… a little bit…".

"Come on, big sis, let's go!" His saviour suddenly appeared in the form of Komekko herself, who - probably being bored of their conversation - began dragging her sister off in the direction that Kazuma had previously been pointing at. Unfortunately, with Megumin's hand still securely holding onto his wrist, Kazuma found himself also being dragged off, as collateral damage.

"This must be what it feels like to watch a loved one die before your very eyes," Kazuma muttered as he wistfully gazed back at the apartment building they had just exited from.

"Please stop being so dramatic," Megumin walked alongside the dejected boy with Chomusuke snuggly hanging out of the neck hole of her t-shirt and Komekko holding onto her hand, who was looking at the building with a similar look, "And don't talk about things like your loved ones dying in front of your eyes so lightly."

The brunette raised an eyebrow, "I wasn't referring to you in particular or anything."

"That's not what I- Never mind," She shook her head, though she did feel her heart start to beat a little faster as she thought about Kazuma considering her as a 'loved one', "Honestly, I'm not even sure why you bothered to check this place out at all. From the outside alone, it's pretty clear that this'd be way outside of what you can afford to rent."

"You're not wrong," Kazuma agreed, seemingly having perked back up already, "But still, it's best to check these things out for yourself. It was entirely possible that these could've been a little cheaper than they looked."

"...And yet, the cheapest apartment they had there was still almost triple what your current budget is," The short haired girl commented, sending him an amused look.

"Don't remind me."

Truthfully, from the moment they'd come across the apartment complex, around twenty minutes away from where his previous one had been located, Kazuma was already fully aware that there was no way he'd be able to afford to stay there, unless he wanted to dump all of his savings into a single month of rent.

Even so, there was no way he'd pass up on the opportunity to at least check it out, something he was quickly coming to regret. As someone who'd spent the last half a year living in a shabby two-room apartment - the other room being his and Aqua's shared bathroom - with faulty heating to boot, stepping foot inside apartments that looked as though they could each easily house an entire family inside made him feel even worse about his abysmal funds.

Kazuma was starting to get pretty worried that he'd have to either live in that mouldy apartment he'd seen on their previous trip or get himself into debt just so he had somewhere for him and Aqua to live. He took back every bad thing he'd said about his old apartment, maybe it had been perfect for him, after all.

"Y'know, I can't believe I'm saying this," Kazuma frowned as the trio made their way out of an overgrown alleyway, one that clearly hadn't been properly maintained in years, "But somehow we had even worse luck this time. At least we actually found more than, like, two apartments last time."

"Mhm, I had kinda expected that we'd end up finding more places in this direction, if I'm being honest," Megumin nodded in agreement as she watched Komekko chase Chomusuke around a few metres ahead of them, "So, I guess you're not interested in either of the places we've looked at so far today."

"Kinda? Well, not exactly," The high schooler scrunched his face up a little as he pulled his phone from his pocket to once again scroll though his notes, even though he really didn't need to, he already knew that neither of them fit his criteria, "I mean, as much as I hate to say it, the first place is a complete no. As appealing as it is, the rent is just too expensive."

Megumin once again nodded in agreement as she leaned into him to read his notes, "What about the other place, then? That one seemed decent enough."

"Hmm" He put a hand to his chin in contemplation as he shot a cursory glance at his notes. After a second or so, he raised a finger and turned his head to look at the girl next to him, "It was… fine, I guess, and the rent is pretty cheap - around the same price as my last apartment. Only problem is that it's just too far away. Look, I'm not walking half an hour to get to the bus stop every day."

"That's… understandable," The shorter teen reluctantly agreed as she watched her little sister finally grab onto the now terrified looking cat, "So, what now? I guess we just have to keep looking, right?".

"Yeah, it's not like we have any other options, as far as I know," Kazuma shoved his phone back into his jacket and groaned as he ran a hand through his hair, "Urgh, why do I have to do this? It's not like this was my fault."

"From what you've said about her, I doubt you'd ever let Aqua handle something as important as this," Megumin remarked as she thought back to the many Aqua-related stories she'd been told in the past.

"Obviously."

They only had to continue walking for around ten more minutes until Komekko, who had seemingly grown bored of terrorising Chomusuke, began excitedly pointing in the direction of a small single-story house.

"Big brother, look! You can live here, can't you?".

"Ah, no, Komekko," Megumin walked over to her little sister, gazing in the direction of the bungalow, "That's a house. Kazuma is looking for apartments, instead."

"Huh, look at that," Kazuma said from slightly behind the two sisters - Chomusuke had long since found sanctuary from her harasser on top of Kazuma's head - as he squinted at a sign set up near the front of the house, "It's being put up for rent, apparently."

"Eh?" The older of the two sisters took a few steps toward the house, getting a better view of the sign, before looking back at the boy behind her with a curious expression, "What, are you thinking about trying to rent out this place? I really don't think you'd be able to afford renting out an entire house, even if it is a fairly small one."

"Yeah, you might be right about that. Though, it isn't really all that big, so it might not be as much as you think," He replied, studying the exterior of the small building, "But, I dunno, it doesn't hurt to check, right? It's a break from aimlessly wandering around for a little bit, at least."

"I can't really argue with that," Megumin shrugged, "You've convinced me."

"Yes, yes. I did a great job at finding a new home for big brother, didn't I?" Kazuma could faintly make out the sound of Komekko proudly mumbling to herself from a short distance away.

Though Kazuma had been hoping for it to be a casual look-around, it's not like he was going to rent it out anyway, the process of actually getting a look at the inside of the house took a lot longer than he would've liked. Actually, if he'd known as much beforehand, he might not have even bothered with taking a look in the first place. Again, he wasn't actually thinking about living there.

Obviously, they couldn't just waltz into the place on their own, which was understandable. Instead, after properly reading through the sign, Kazuma called the phone number listed at the bottom and was greeted by a man with a deep, gruff-sounding voice after a few rings. After explaining that he was calling about the house he was renting out, the man responded with a concise 'I'll be there in a while to show you around' and hung up the call before Kazuma could say anything further.

"So?" Megumin asked once the green eyed boy moved the phone away from his ear, "What did the owner say? Is there some spare key that we can use to get in or something?".

"Nope. He'll be here 'in a while' to show us around, apparently. No idea how long that's supposed to be, though" He explained, sighing, "I guess we're just gonna have to wait around here until then."

"Is that really all he said?" The girl questioned, furrowing her eyebrows in annoyance for a moment until her face suddenly cleared up and she moved over to Kazuma to carefully take the bag from over his shoulder, "Well, if that's how it is, then why don't we have lunch while we're waiting?".

Komekko's eyes quickly lit up as she scampered over to her sister in an instant, "Lunch? Now? Are we having lunch now?".

"May as well," Kazuma shrugged as he shook his arm to allow the bag to fall into Megumin's awaiting hands, "I'm pretty sure we're coming up on twelve soon, anyway."

Seating themselves on a large patch of grass, that Kazuma could only hope wasn't private property, a short distance away from the house, they unpacked the bag and quickly started eating.

Eventually, after around fifteen minutes, they finally noticed a dark grey car pull up nearby the house. Kazuma left the other three where they were to make his way over to the newly arrived individual, with Megumin promising that they'd come join him once she'd finished packing everything back up.

Just as he made his way to the front of the house, the car door slammed open and a large figure made his way out, making his way towards Kazuma with a serious look on his face. The man was, quite frankly, enormous, easily towering over the sixteen year-old and having the raw muscle mass of a bodybuilder. Yet, despite that, Kazuma still found his most defining feature to be the dark brown mohawk on the top of his head.

"You," He sternly uttered as he locked eyes with the boy, "What are you doing here, kid?".

Kazuma couldn't help but begin to feel a little frightened when directly faced with such an intimidating presence. "I-I'm here for a viewing," He simply said, pointing at the sign, "For the, uh y'know, the house that's being rented out."

"Oh," The mountain of a man peered down at the teenager in front of him, as if he was assessing him, "And what makes you think I'm just gonna rent this place out to some kid?".

"H-huh? Wha?" Kazuma was momentarily surprised by the man's clear disdain for him before that surprise quickly morphed into irritation, his eyebrows twitching, "Oi, what the hell is your issue wi-".

"Gahahahah!" His once intimidating visage suddenly let out a hearty laugh, miming the act of wiping a tear from his eye as his laughing came to an end, "Aw man, I like you, kid. Don't worry, I was just messin' with ya."

"...Alright," Was all the high schooler responded with, still a little unsure what to think of the man. Though, his opinion of him was much better than it had been about ten seconds prior, at least.

"So you're really interested in checkin' this place out then?" The towering man questioned, his expression becoming one of intrigue, "Gotta say, I didn't expect someone of your age to be thinkin' about renting out a house."

He sighed, "It's a long story,"

"Kazuma, Kazuma," Megumin's voice rang out as she, flanked by Komekko and Chomusuke, made her way back over to the house, having somehow not noticed the mountain of a man standing right next to the front door, "Did the owner let you in to look around y…et? Oh."

"Hello, mister!" Komekko, unperturbed as ever, enthusiastically waved in the direction of the large man, receiving a large, toothy grin in return.

"Oh," He turned to Kazuma with a smirk, "So I guess you're not planning to live on your own, then. Who exactly are these two - my bad, these three?".

"Uhm, not quite, no. Well, I am gonna be living with someone else, she's out of town at the moment," The emerald eyed teen tried to clarify, then gestured over towards the sisters, "But they're just helping me look for places, that's all."

"Oh, 'she's' out of town, is she?" The boy really didn't like the entertained look on the older man's stoic face, "Moving in with a girl, huh? She your girlfriend, by any chance?".

"N-no way! Absolutely not!" Megumin responded in Kazuma's place. The mere idea of Aqua being referred to as Kazuma's girlfriend souring her mood far more than she'd like to admit, "Actually, I'm his girlfriend."

"O-oi, Megumin!" Kazuma was completely caught off guard. He hadn't expected Megumin to suddenly bring up their relationship in front of what was practically a stranger.

"Man, you just get more and more impressive by the second, kid."

"A-anyway," The dark haired girl found herself becoming increasingly bashful in the aftermath of her bold declaration, her voice now considerably quieter, "...My name is Megumin. This here is my little sister, Komekko. It's nice to meet you sir."

"And that's Chomusuke!" Komekko chimed in, gesturing over in the direction of the small black cat.

Though the house was not large in any sense of the word, it was still much bigger than Kazuma's previous apartment by a fairly sizable margin. The house was made up of four separate rooms, with the first of the four rooms - also being the biggest - serving as a combination of a living room, a kitchen and a dining room all in one, not too dissimilar to the main room of his old apartment, just a little bit bigger.

The owner had shown them around the main room, taking extra time to show each of the facilities that the kitchen would come with. Kazuma couldn't help but feel a pang of desire as he laid his eyes upon the dishwasher, a commodity he'd been sorely missing for the past six months, as he'd been forced to get used to the arduous task of washing his dishes by hand.

From there, they took a quick peek into the bathroom. It was a pretty standard affair, all things considered, with a toilet, sink and shower available for use. He really didn't have it in him to be overly bothered by the lack of a bath, he was more than used to taking showers over baths.

And finally, at the end of their small tour, they checked out the two bedrooms, which were mostly identical with very minimal differences between the two. They were nothing special, really, but the beds looked like they were decently comfortable. Komekko, who tried them out first hand, confirmed as much as she ended up falling asleep within a few minutes.

"So, what're you thinkin' about the place, then, kid?" The lumbering man asked as they made their way back into the main room of the house.

"Honestly, this place is pretty ideal, all things considered," He put a hand to his chin in thought, "The facilities seem to be a lot better than the last place I lived at, and it's a lot more spacious than there, too."

"Yeah," Added Megumin, Komekko groggily holding onto her hand to keep herself upright, "I'm not even the one looking for a place to stay, but I'm still feeling a little excited by just looking around somewhere like this."

"If it wasn't for the fact that the rent for this place is probably way higher than I can reasonably afford, I'd probably end up staying here," Kazuma absentmindedly commented, piquing the interest of the large man.

He looked over at Kazuma in slight surprise, "Oh, that's right, I haven't told you about the price of rent for this place yet, have I? Well, guess I'll get on with it now, then. When it comes to renting this place out, it's usually…".

"Uhm, Kazuma," Megumin said as she walked alongside him, her sleepy little sister napping in her arms, "Not that I'm trying to doubt your decisions or anything, but are you really sure that it was a good idea to start renting out that place on the spot? Don't you wanna try looking for something else that's, I dunno, a little cheaper?".

"Yeah, yeah, I get what you're trying to say," The boy dismissively waved his hand as they continued back in the direction of Megumin's house, "Maybe it was somewhat of a… hasty decision, in hindsight, but, I mean, you did see that place, right? It's leagues better than my old apartment, for sure."

"Again, you're not wrong, it does seem like a pretty good place to live in," The crimson eyed teen ran and finger through Komekko's bangs before she brought up her next concern, "What about the rent, though? It's completely out of your budget isn't it?".

"Er, unfortunately, it is, yeah," Kazuma conceded, sheepishly scratching at the base of his neck, "But it's not over by that much if you look at it, especially because he offered me a small monthly discount since I'm a student."

"Mhm, that guy was weirdly generous to you, don't you think?" She stated aloud as her mind thought back to the gigantic man, "Hold on, wait, did you even catch that guy's name? I feel like he never actually told us."

"Huh," The brunette's eyes widened in surprise, "No, I didn't. You're right, he never did tell us. Odd."

"Back on topic," Megumin's expression switched over to one of curiosity, "How are you planning to make up the extra money you'll need each month?".

"I'll, uh," Kazuma averted his eyes, looking away from her, "I'm sure I'll figure something out."

"Y-y-you'll figure something out!?" The short haired girl stared at him in disbelief, "That's your plan?".

"Come on, give me a break," He complained, letting out a loud sigh, "I'm still thinking things over, okay? I do have a few ideas."

"Urm, well," She glanced over at him with a soft smile, "It always seems like you end up having some strange way of making everything turn out okay in the end, so I guess I'll just trust you on this one. You better find a way to start making up that extra money you need, okay Kazuma?".

Kazuma returned her smile with one of his own and sent her a reassuring thumbs up, "Consider it done, Megumin."

"Chief, I need a raise."

"Denied. Anything else?".

"Argh, come on!" Kazuma grabbed at the sides of his head in frustration, causing Chris to start snickering to herself, "Look, chief, I really need to start making some more money."

The evening shift had ended not long ago, and, currently, the two workers were in the process of closing up for the night, having already changed out of their uniforms and into their own clothes. Truthfully, Kazuma had intended to bring the topic up to her much earlier in his shift but, to his surprise, the café had been far busier than usual that evening. As such, he hadn't really had an opportunity to properly talk with her up until then.

The short haired girl put a finger up to her bottom lip, seemingly contemplating his words, "Do you actually need more money, or is this just like all the other times you've asked me for a raise?".

He scratched at his neck and looked away under his boss' scrupulous gaze, "I actually need it this time, I promise."

"Well, I mean," Chris paused for a moment, considering her next words, "It's not that I'm against giving you a raise - a small one, mind you, helper - but it's just that it might not really be feasibly possible, for a little bit, at least."

"Not feasibly possible?" The high schooler repeated, tossing a stained cloth into their makeshift wash basket, "What exactly does that mean? Are we in the red or something?".

"Nope, not at all. The complete opposite, actually. This has been our best month in a while so far," She explained with a prideful grin on her face.

Kazuma turned to her, intrigued, "Huh? Really? I mean, I guess we've had a few more busier days than usual, but is it really that big of a deal?"

"Oho, helper, helper, helper. It's not just a few busy days, it's something much bigger than that," Chris raised her finger in the air, as if she was about to give him a lecture.

"O…kay, then," He responded, his brow scrunching up in scepticism, "So, what is it that's making things so good for this place, if not that?".

She leaned in to speak to Kazuma in a hushed whisper, despite the fact that they were the only two people in the café at the time, "Helper, I think that recently this place has… become popular with the youth."

"Urgh," The boy visibly cringed, "Seriously chief, don't say stuff like 'popular with the youth' ever again. It makes you sound like some kind of senile citizen. You're barely even an adult yourself, you do know that, right?".

"Pssh, I think it sounds cool, personally," The silver haired girl retorted, having no intention to listen to his complaints, "But anyway, as I was saying, diversifying the age range of potential patrons could lead to a big boom in customers, y'know."

"Honestly, It doesn't really look like things have changed all that much recently," Kazuma rolled his eyes as he sent her a disbelieving glance, "The people who come here are still pretty much limited to middle-aged office workers and creepy old men."

"Please don't refer to our clientele as 'creepy old men', helper," Chris bluntly stated, "And I'll have you know that the number of under twenties coming in here has definitely increased in the past month or so, I'm sure of it."

"Well, it doesn't seem like you'll take anything else as an answer, so I guess I'll just go along with it for now," The part timer eventually gave in, glancing over at his boss before he continued speaking, "And what, may I ask, does any of this have to do with why you can't give me a raise?".

"Oh, right. That's what this was about again," She racked her brain for a second before she looked over at the boy, "Well, take today's shift for example. Don't you think that things were getting a bit too hectic for just the two of us at some points?".

Kazuma hummed in agreement, leaning against a nearby table, "Mhm, yeah, I won't deny that. Honestly, I'm starting to wish that Darkness would come back a little sooner, but don't tell her I said that."

"Yeah, it's just like you said," The short haired girl gave a prideful smile, "Darkness has already become a pretty valuable part of our little team here-".

"That's not even remotely close to what I said,"

"-And she definitely helps to make our workflow a lot more manageable," She finished.

"Where exactly are you going with this, chief?" Kazuma inquired as he watched her pack away an assortment of random junk that littered one of the far back tables.

"I'm thinking about maybe taking on another new hire or two," Chris explained as she used a pair of chopsticks to slide the junk into a trash bag without having to touch it herself, "Actually, never mind. Two new hires would probably end up being more hassle than it's worth, but one new hire still seems like a pretty good idea."

"Seriously?" He gave the girl a raised eyebrow as he listened to her words, "Didn't you only just bring Darkness on, like, a month ago?".

"One month, one week and six days, to be specific," She corrected him, "But, still, I don't think it would hurt to get another pair of hands to keep things running smoothly."

"Huh," Kazuma seemed to be in thought for a few seconds before shrugging and picking up the basket of dirty fabric in the middle of the room, "Well, I don't really see much of a point in getting another hire, especially when you already have me and Darkness, but I guess it isn't really a big deal or anything."

The automatic door gently slid open as Kazuma made his way inside the small convenience store, instantly feeling a wave of relaxing heat wash over him, a welcome change from the chilly evening air. Though it wasn't somewhere he frequented that often anymore, it was still a place he was fairly familiar with, having gone there many times back when he was still living in his parents' house.

His shift that day had been, to put it frankly, exhausting. Sure, while the busier days did usually come with the promise of a small bonus on his pay check, it sadly came at the cost of his vitality. Even more unfortunate for him, while he would usually just end up eating at work during his breaks - a habit that Chris was surprisingly okay with - it had somehow completely slipped his mind to do so during his hectic shift, with his breaks being both short and infrequent.

Simply put, not only was he tired, like usual, he was now tired and hungry.

Mentally chastising himself for not just asking Chris if he could quickly make himself something to eat before they closed up earlier, he made his way down the nearest aisle in search of something to solve his second problem. It didn't take long for him to pick out a pack of premade onigiri, deeming it as 'good enough', and turning in the direction of the cash register.

"Hey, you," A vaguely familiar female voice called out from somewhere behind him, getting his attention, "Yeah, you, aren't you like Aqua's butler, or servant, or whatever she said you were?".

Kazuma scoffed, he definitely recognised that voice now. Spinning on his heels, his assumptions were instantly confirmed as true as he noticed a blonde haired girl saunter up to him, greeting him with an oh-so-fake looking smile.

"Mmm. Hey… Cecily?" He gave her a disinterested wave, only partially confident that he'd actually remembered the girl's name. She was around two years younger than Aqua, and just so happened to be the only person from Aqua's high school who still kept up with her, with the two of them apparently having been pretty close friends back before Aqua was expelled, or - as Aqua herself would put it - before she was 'allowed to graduate early'.

While the idea of anyone willingly being close to the blue haired shut-in was initially insane to Kazuma, a single taste of Cecily's personality was all it had taken for everything to make complete sense in Kazuma's mind.

"Yup, that's my name, um, Aqua's friend!" Cecily nodded happily. The green eyed boy briefly debated on whether or not he should remind her of his actual name, but he had a sneaking suspicion that she wouldn't end up remembering it even if he did tell her.

"So, what exactly is it that you want from me?" Kazuma questioned, hoping that his impatience wasn't too obvious. It's not that he overly disliked the girl or anything, he just really didn't want to end up missing his usual bus. He unconsciously began tapping his foot as Cecily seemingly decided on an answer.

"Nothing! I just wanted to hear about what Aqua has been doing recently," The blonde gave another wide grin, "And you, as her bodyguard, definitely know all about the incredible things she's surely been up to lately, right?".

"Since when did I get promoted from servant to bodyguard?" He fixed the girl with a deadpan stare, then shaking his head as he moved on, "Actually, never mind that. 'Incredible things' my ass! The only 'incredible' thing that she's done recently is somehow burn down an entire apartment complex."

Cecily began enthusiastically nodding her head at his words, "Oooh, you're right. That does sound pretty incredible, please tell me more!".

Kazuma groaned in frustration, he should've expected as much. It might be best to evacuate before things could go any further. "Well, anyway, it was… great to see you again," He wasn't exactly trying to be rude, but he really didn't want to end up missing his bus because of her, "But, uh, I'll be going now. Bye."

The teen had only moved a single step before he felt a hand stretched out at breakneck speeds and grabbed onto his arm, just below his elbow. "Alright, what's the big idea?" Kazuma asked, glancing back at the blonde haired teen, "I seriously need to get going now. So, if you'll excuse me, I'll be going no-".

"Nope," The older girl winked and stuck out her tongue, "With how busy she always is with her work, I rarely ever get the chance to talk to Aqua, so you've at least gotta tell me something!".

"W-wait, wait, wait. Hold on," Kazuma recoiled back in surprise, his eyebrows furrowing into a scowl, "She's busy with her what?".

"Her… work. Y'know, the bar? The one that she left high school to start managing?" Cecily, for once, seemed to take on a confused - and perhaps even slightly concerned - expression as saw the blank stare on Kazuma's face, "Not ringing any bells for you? Do you seriously not know anything about her job?".

The brunette let out an annoyed sigh, internally grumbling to himself, 'No, trust me, I know everything there is to know about her job, or - more accurately - lack of a job. She's just lying to you to make herself look good.'

To Aqua's credit, what little credit she had left, it was technically true that she had worked in a bar, the key word being 'had'. Unfortunately for her, she was not the manager there and she certainly did not work there anymore. Actually, she'd even accidentally gotten the place shut down once her high school had found out that she had been working at a bar while still being underage. Hearing such ridiculous lies coming from Aqua sadly didn't even surprise him anymore.

Though, shockingly, Aqua had been fairly popular - and seeming pretty good - at her job, due to her penchant for various party tricks and apparent 'people skills'.

Hold on…

"Helloooo?" The voice of Cecily suddenly broke through Kazuma's inner musings, reminding him that he hadn't actually responded to her previous question.

"Huh? Oh right, her job, yeah," He rolled his eyes as he played along, partially, "Yeah, the bar has really been going downhill, these days. Apparently, a lot of her employees have been going on for a while now about how unfit she is for the role of management."

If Aqua was gonna make up fake stories about her own life, Kazuma felt no guilt in making up fake slander about her in return. It only seemed fair, after all.

"W-what? Is that really true?" The older teen put her hands up to her face in dismay, "How could those traitors of employees turn against her? That's so… so… horrible!".

"Yeah, horrible. Just terrible, isn't it?" He spoke in complete monotone before briskly walking over in the direction of the checkout, waving over at the blonde haired teen as he walked away, "I really do have to get going now or I'll seriously miss my bus. I'll… tell Aqua you said hi, or something.."

Not even waiting to hear whatever Cecily had to say in response, he purchased his food as quickly as possible and hurried out of the store. Sure, looking back on it, he may have been a teensy bit more rude to her than was really necessary, but he was too tired, hungry and now in danger of missing his bus to care all that much.

As he wandered through the streets at a considerably brisker pace than usual, he found his mind wandering to the train of thought he had been exploring a few minutes prior. To be specific, it was about Aqua. While he would mostly consider his run-in with Cecily to be an inconvenience, he couldn't deny the fact that their conversation about Aqua's previous work had sparked something of an idea inside of his head.

An idea that, if everything went to plan, could possibly kill multiple birds with a single stone. With a new plan taking form within his brain, he found himself making his way towards the bus stop in a more chipper mood than he had been in a few minutes before.

Unfortunately, that good mood swiftly and unceremoniously dissipated as Kazuma arrived at the bus stop just in time to see his usual bus driving away from the stop.

"Oh, come on, seriously!?".