AN: Thank you to everyone who has read and enjoyed this story so far! Although writing and uploading a 10,000+ word chapter weekly is certainly a task that consumes a lot of both free time and effort for me, I will still try to upkeep this schedule for as long as there are people who are interested in reading my work (or, the more likely outcome, until I finish this fic).
- Chapter 3: A Temporary Home For This Part-Timer! -
Megumin felt herself let out a small yawn as her eyes fluttered open, using her free hand to groggily rub the sleep from her eyes. As her vision slowly focused, she quickly took notice of the slumbering boy on the adjacent futon. She couldn't help but smile at how peaceful he looked in that moment. Upon trying to move her left hand, she felt Kazuma's soft grip, their hands still intertwined from the night before.
She allowed herself to enjoy such a wonderful moment for a few minutes longer before she eventually decided that she had to get up. Begrudgingly, she softly pried the still resting Kazuma's hand from her own and stood up, looking over at the clock on her bedroom wall. It was currently 8:12 in the morning. Not surprising, they hadn't gotten to sleep last night until sometime past midnight.
For a few seconds, Megumin considered waking Kazuma up, but upon recalling the events he'd had to endure the previous day and the tired look in his eyes from last night, she decided it was only fair to let the poor boy sleep in a little longer. He probably didn't get that luxury very often, now that she thought about it.
Her attention then switched to the other person in the house, her little sister, Komekko. Judging by the fact that she hadn't run into her room to wake her up yet, she could only assume that she was still asleep, for now.
Glancing back at Kazuma's sleeping form one more time, Megumin opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway, heading in the direction of her parents' room. Since the time was already well past eight, and they were supposed to leave at around seven, she could only assume that her mom and dad were already long gone.
As she slowly creaked open the door to her parents' room, the red eyed girl spotted her little sister, who had seemingly just woken up, slowly sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
"Goomorning… big sis…" Came Komekko's half-awake greeting.
"Good morning Komekko," Megumin cooed and gave her sister a bright smile, "How did you sleep?".
"Hungry…" She replied, ignoring the question entirely, "Is big sis here to make me food?"
"Eh? Ah, yes! Of course, big sis will get started on breakfast right away!".
She stumbled to her feet with a lopsided grin, "Foooood…".
'There's barely anything left…' Megumin thought to herself as she scoured through the kitchen cupboards, 'We'll have to make do with porridge for now but we should probably go out to get groceries sooner rather than later.'
"We're gonna be having porridge this morning, okay Komekko?" She said as she pulled out the bag of oats.
"Okay big sis!" Her sister cheered, clearly just excited to eat food in general, not really caring that it was the same thing she had most days.
Megumin happily hummed to herself as she got to work on making enough porridge for the three of them, Komekko hopping around her and drooling the entire time. Just as she was serving the porridge into the first bowl, she heard the sound of a door opening and someone walking down the hallway.
"Morning," Kazuma said to her as he wandered into the kitchen, having changed into a simple grey t-shirt and black sweatpants, before he noticed the other person in the room, "Oh, hey Komekko."
The small girl looked at him in confusion for a moment, then she suddenly lit up and smiled at him, as if she'd just remembered who he was. "Big sister's boyfriend!".
"Eh! Komekko!" Megumin squealed, trying her best to avoid looking at the equally flustered Kazuma, "He's my friend, not my b-boyfriend. Where would you even get that idea from?".
"Mommy," Komekko innocently replied, clearly not interested in her sister's embarrassed tirade, instead choosing to totter over to Kazuma, her big, round eyes looking into his, "Are you here to bring me more food, mister?".
"Not exactly," Kazuma said, crouching down to her height, "I'm here to help your big sister take care of you while your parents are away. But I'll make sure to get you some tasty snacks from time to time."
"Hmmm… Does this mean that you're my big brother now, big brother?".
He contemplated her words for a few moments, "Of course."
"Yay!" She whooped, "Now I have a big brother to make me food too!".
The small girl let out a cheer of happiness, dancing around the kitchen, while Kazuma made his way over to Megumin.
She let out a groan. "You haven't even been here for a day and my sister is already calling you 'big brother', how do you even do that?".
"No idea. Pretty sure it's just because I said I'd buy her snacks," He joked, then leaned down to whisper in her ear. "You know, you could always start calling me big brother too if you want."
"Ew! Ew! Gross! Why do you have to make everything weird, you pervert!" The red faced girl squealed as she jolted back and shot him an annoyed glare before recomposing herself and snickering. "Heh. If I actually did do that, you'd probably get all flustered and beg me to stop."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Uh huh, sure," Megumin sarcastically replied as she used a spoon to get the last dregs of porridge from the pot.
"Anyways, what did you make for breakfast?" He asked as he approached the three bowls, looking at their contents. "Porridge?".
"Mhm. We don't have much else left in the house right now, so you better not complain about it!" She said as she attempted to stare down the boy for a few seconds, before she cracked and started laughing at the obviously unintimidated expression on his face.
"Oi, I wasn't complaining about it, I was just asking about it," Kazuma explained to her, chuckling a bit himself, "So I assume this means that we're gonna have to go shopping later?".
"Yup. I'd rather go before lunch if that's okay with you."
"That's fine with me," He shrugged, picking up two of the bowls as Megumin grabbed the other one, "We may as well just go straight after breakfast."
The girl nodded as they placed the bowls of porridge down onto the table. "Komekko!" Megumin got her sister's attention, "Porridge is ready!".
In the blink of an eye, Komekko was running towards the table at speeds that really should not be possible for a four year old to reach, quickly plopping herself down in front of her bowl and digging in. Megumin and Kazuma followed suit shortly after, though they ate their food at a much more conservative speed.
"Hey! Kazuma," Megumin grumbled at the boy as he pulled his phone out of his pocket, "You do know that it's considered rude to pull out your phone while you're eating with other people, right?".
"Huh? O-oh, yeah, right. Sorry," He sent her a guilty look but still kept his phone out, "I just got a text from my boss, so it's kinda important."
"Well, if it's important, then I'll let it go just this once," She tried and failed to look genuinely irritated, "What was it about?".
"About my situation, I guess. Also my schedule while I'm on break," He finished sending his response and put his phone back into his pocket, "Seems that Darkness gave the chief a heads up about the apartment situation. She says I don't have to come into work today though, so that's nice."
"Mhm. What was the part about your schedule?".
He swallowed his food before talking again. "Since I'm on break now, I can take either the lunchtime shift or my usual evening shift."
"You can just choose? Just like that?" Megumin asked in surprise.
"Pretty much. As long as I let her know the day before, I can change my shift around if I want. As long as I show up and do my hours, she really doesn't mind what time of day it is."
"Your boss is way too nice to you," she said as she narrowed her eyes at nothing in particular, "She definitely gives you special treatment, doesn't she?".
"Guess so," He casually answered, "Not that I'm complaining about it though… Oi, what's with that sour look on your face?".
"Nothing!".
"Mmmmm! So yummy!" Little Komekko said as she cleared out the final remnants of her breakfast. Kazuma looked down at his and Megumin's half eaten bowl and then back to the little girl, her hands twitching as she began to reach for his bowl.
"You can have mine if you're still hungry, Komekko," Megumin affectionately smiled at her, completely used to her sister's ravenous hunger by now, receiving an enthusiastic nod from the now elated girl. She turned to Kazuma as her little sister began to demolish her bowl, "In case you were wondering why we didn't have any food left in the house, I'm sure you understand now."
"Completely."
Around 30 minutes later, the three of them - four if you count the cat sticking out of Megumin's orange hoodie - were making their way through the small car park of a familiar store. It wasn't the one Kazuma would usually frequent for groceries, but he had definitely come here on a few occasions in the past. For Megumin and Komekko, on the other hand, the store was very well-known to the both of them, being the store their mother would usually buy groceries from. Megumin had, on many occasions, been tasked with the job of food shopping in the past, while Komekko would sometimes go with her mother to get groceries, if there was no one else to look after her.
"Big brother! Big brother!" Komekko shouted as she pulled on Kazuma's sleeve, already used to referring to him as such, "I wanna sit in the food cart! Please?".
"Of course you can, Komekko," Megumin told the little girl. Yet, despite that, she didn't even look as if she registered her big sister's words as she continued staring intently at Kazuma.
It took him a few seconds to realise that she was specifically waiting for his response. "Fine by me," he shrugged indifferently as he moved to collect a shopping cart.
"She… ignored me…" Megumin dejectedly muttered to herself as Komekko hopped up and down in front of the shopping cart, "My own little sister…".
Kazuma only looked upon her in pity as he gently picked Komekko up and helped her get her legs through the gaps in the trolley to sit in the honestly uncomfortable looking plastic seat. Though, from the look on the little girl's face, she didn't seem to be uncomfortable in the slightest. Either that, or she was just excited to be so high up. Yeah, that was probably it. He couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Chomusuke hop out from her resting place in Megumin's hoodie to quickly make her way to Komekko's lap, where the cat promptly fell asleep.
"Oi, stop looking so miserable," He told Megumin as he began to move the cart towards the entrance of the store, "You should know how fickle kids are. She'll get bored of me before you know it."
She seemed to somewhat perk up at his words, quickly walking to catch up with Kazuma as they entered. "Of course," She convinced herself, "Why would she want some dummy like Kazuma when she has a wonderful big sister right here!".
"Oi!" He turned to her in annoyance, only for her to start softly laughing at his displeased reaction, "I take it back, go back to being depressed!".
"Meat!" Komekko interrupted as she pointed down the nearest aisle, having already decided what they would be buying first.
For the next half an hour or so, Kazuma and Megumin made their way throughout the decently sized grocery store, picking up everything that they thought they might need over the course of the next week. Of course, they made sure they didn't spend too much, although it's not like conserving money was anything new to either of them.
All the while, Komekko was staring on in wonder, in awe of the sheer amount of food that was within one building. When she wasn't looking at the food, she was instead talking about it. Telling Kazuma all about her favourite foods and then rambling about pancakes, an amazing new treat that she had discovered for the first time the day before with her big sister and 'the weird girl'. Her appetite had gotten so bad at one point that she had started to nibble the sleeping Chomusuke, who frantically woke up and practically leapt onto Megumin's head to escape her predator.
"Y'know," Megumin looked at Kazuma as they wandered down the final aisle, "This probably would've been a lot quicker if we'd remembered to make a shopping list beforehand."
"I'm glad we're on the same page about that," Kazuma looked down at the contents of the shopping cart, "This should definitely last the three of us until next weekend, even with Komekko's appetite. Still though, this doesn't look like it's gonna be cheap, even if we are splitting the cost."
Megumin looked at the slight grimace on the boy's face, "You don't have to split the cost if you really don't want to. It's not like anyone's even asking you to do it in the first place."
Kazuma ran his hand through his hair in slight irritation. Not that he was annoyed at Megumin, he knew she was just trying to help. He was just irritated in regards to the entirety of his current situation, and how out of his control it felt. "It's fine, I already said I had no problem doing it, didn't I?" His irritation slowly faded away as he saw the conflicted look on the girl's face, "Look, I'm not doing this out of some sense of obligation or whatever. I'd just feel like a scumbag if I made your parents spend their money on me after they already gave me a place to stay, especially with how poor you guys are."
She couldn't hide the warm smile that made its way to her face upon hearing the boy's truly thoughtful declaration. Still, while Kazuma hadn't been wrong about the fact that her family was indeed pretty poor, it's not like he was much better off himself. Actually, as far as Megumin was concerned, he probably had it worse than she did in a few ways.
"Th-thanks… for being so considerate," She meekly said before she threw up one hand to pose dramatically, while the other went into her pocket, and confidently continued, "But you don't have to worry about a high price, Kazuma, because I didn't come here unprepared. Behold my secret weapon!".
Komekko clapped at her sister's performance as Megumin quickly pulled back the hand resting in her hoodie's pocket to flash a large wad of coupons in front of Kazuma's face. He stared at her with a bemused expression for a moment before his body visibly relaxed and he smirked at the overdramatic girl in front of him.
"I shouldn't have expected anything less from you," The brown haired teen chuckled, 'Because really, who else would think to hoard a gigantic pile of coupons just to get a discount on groceries?'.
She smirked at him and leaned towards him, "Amazed by my genius?".
"Those coupons aren't out of date, right?".
"Nope! I made sure to check the date on all of them." She grinned proudly
"Then yeah, I'm pretty impressed," Kazuma said as they made their way to the end of the final aisle, letting out a puff of air in relief, "Finally, we're done."
Despite Kazuma's comment, or maybe in spite of it, it was almost another whole hour until they were finally done with the entire process of grocery shopping. He had tried his hardest to hold back his laughter as he saw the expression on the face of the store worker when Megumin dumped her wad of coupons in front of them, but he was just glad to see that the coupons did in fact help cut out a sizable chunk of their overall spending. And with the fact that the total cost was split fifty fifty between them both, he was pleasantly surprised by how little he actually ended up losing.
Once they'd packed up all of their purchases, with him holding two bags, Megumin holding the other bag and Komekko holding a small candy bar that Kazuma had given her, they made their way back to Megumin and Komekko's parents' house. Of course, the little girl took this opportunity to grill her two babysitters on what food they'd be making for her over the next few days. It was by this point that Kazuma was getting more and more worried that this was the only thing the small girl talked about.
As if she heard his very thoughts, just as they got into the house, Komekko rushed up to him to tell him that she 'wanted big brother to come play with her'. Megumin quickly reminded her little sister that Kazuma had to help her put the shopping away first and shooed her off to go watch TV as they made their way into the kitchen.
"That's everything," Megumin informed him as she took the last item from the final bag, a fresh cabbage, and opened the fridge door to put it inside.
"Honestly, that took longer than I thought it would," He rested his arms behind his head as he leaned against the wall next to the fridge, "But most of that extra time was probably just due to me not knowing where anything goes."
"Mhm," The girl softly hummed in response, then poking him in the chest when he closed his eyes in relaxation, "Hey, did you forget that you have to go play with someone now?".
Kazuma opened one eye and smirked mischievously, "I won't judge, but aren't you a little too old to be 'playing' still?".
His friend's face quickly flared up in embarrassment, her hands weakly swiping at his chest, "I meant my little sister, not me, you jerk!".
"I know, I was just messing with you. You really should know this by now," He replied as he pushed himself from the wall and placed his hands onto her shoulders to quickly stabilise himself. Megumin felt herself tense up under his touch but quickly relaxed again as he let go after a second or so and made his way into the front room.
Once there, Kazuma instantly spotted the small girl, her gaze currently transfixed onto the television. He could tell she was watching an anime of some sort, but it wasn't one that he instantly recognised. Though it did feel a little familiar to him for whatever reason.
"Hey, Komekko," He cupped his hands around his mouth to imitate a megaphone, the sound of his voice getting the girl to turn her attention towards him, "I'm done helping your big sis put everything away, you still want big brother to play with you?".
In response, the girl frantically nodded her head and smiled widely as she got up and began to pull Kazuma in the direction of hers and Megumin's shared room. "You can show me all the games you know, big brother!".
And so, as per Komekko's request, Kazuma played game after game with his new 'little sister'. He was quick to impress her with his incredible rock paper scissors skills, not losing to her a single time, and he then moved on to teaching her a plethora of simple card games using a pack of cards that he had found near Megumin's desk. It was only half way through teaching her how to play Blackjack that he realised that the girl only knew how to count up to ten, she was only four years old after all, so he quickly improvised his own version of the game that only went up to ten, instead of the normal twenty-one.
Just as they finished their first round of 'Blackjack', the door opened and Megumin quietly made her way into the room. "Hey, you two having fun?" she asked as she pulled out the seat from her desk and sat down on it, putting her elbow onto the desk and allowing her head to rest on her hand.
"Yesh!" Komekko beamed at her big sister, pointing at the cards in front of her, "Big brother taught me how to play backtack!".
Megumin looked over at Kazuma with scepticism. "Blackjack," He corrected, idly reshuffling the cards, "I had to alter the rules a bit for her, but she seems to be getting the hang of it."
"Alter the ru-?" Megumin began to question him, before remembering how the game of Blackjack actually works, as well as her sister's current numerical skills, "Oh, right. Makes sense,". Watching in slight amusement as Kazuma finished shuffling the deck, he wasn't perfect at it by any means, the teen girl shifted her attention and entire body towards her desk.
"Oi, are you gonna join in?" The green eyed boy asked her as he noticed her turning away, "Or have you got something else to do?".
She gently picked up the papers on her desk and smiled at the boy, "W-well, I was actually planning on finishing my homework… but…".
"Huh? Is big sis gonna play with me too?" Komekko looked up expectantly, her eyes shining brightly.
Megumin mentally grumbled to herself about the unfairness of the only two people she couldn't say no to, for better or for worse, teaming up against her; placing her homework back down onto the desk with an amused sigh. "Mhm, of course I will!" She reassured her little sister, getting up from her seat and plopping herself down next to Kazuma and Komekko, the three of them making a sort of triangle formation on the floor.
Though she had honestly only intended to play with them for around ten minutes or so, before getting back to finishing her homework, Megumin quickly lost interest in her initial idea as she helped Kazuma teach her little sister all number of card tricks and games, having too much fun to care about her remaining schoolwork.
She had been pleasantly surprised over the course of the morning by how good Kazuma was with her sister. She'd never really expected him to be the type of person who would be good with kids, but it started to make more and more sense to her as she recalled all the horror stories Kazuma had told her about his roommate. If he had the patience to deal with someone like that, her little sister would be no problem in comparison. Komekko had never burnt the house down, after all.
It was as she was halfway through showing the little girl a 'magic trick' where she would perfectly guess her card, about an hour or so later, that Komekko's playtime was swiftly interrupted and ended when a loud rumble came from the small girl's stomach. Komekko quickly lost interest in the card trick after that.
"Big siiiis," The young girl clung to her, making Megumin drop the cards in the process, "Is it lunchtime yet? I'm really really really hungry."
Megumin looked over at the clock, a little caught off guard when she realised it was almost half past twelve already. "Yeah, it's lunchtime now. How about you wait here while we go make you something tasty to eat, okay?".
"O-" She loudly yawned as she made her way over to her futon, "Okay,". The two other people in the room slowly stood up and exchanged looks as they watched her curl up on the blankets next to Chomusuke, who was resting in an almost identical position.
Lunchtime had quickly turned to afternoon. To her pleasant surprise, Megumin actually still felt extremely lively, despite the busy morning they'd had. Luckily, things had calmed down a lot more after lunch, with Komekko taking a nap for a few hours after enjoying the fairly simple, yet still tasty, food that she and Kazuma had made for her.
Taking advantage of the fact that her sister wouldn't be up for a few hours, Megumin had silently snuck into their shared room to grab the schoolwork from her desk, opting to finish it at the dining table so as to not disturb her sister's naptime. It was about ten minutes later when Kazuma came in from the front room, deciding to join her at the table once he remembered that he too also had a fairly hefty stack of homework to complete.
And so, with Megumin finishing the last of her work within only fifteen minutes, the next couple hours or so were spent with her trying her best to help Kazuma with his own homework. Sure, she herself was not yet a high schooler and had never done a single piece of high school work in her life, but she wasn't considered a genius for nothing. Though she couldn't do anything to change the simple fact that she just hadn't been taught a lot of the things he was studying yet, once Kazuma gave her a simple rundown on what she needed to know, she managed to catch on pretty quickly.
The middle schooler couldn't help but giggle at the adorable reaction Kazuma had when she poked fun at how he was being helped with his homework by a girl two years below him, evolving into into full-blown joyous laughter at the mix of embarrassment and annoyance on his face once she'd started laughing.
Eventually, Komekko had woken up from her power nap and groggily wandered into the front room, informing then that she 'needed big sis and big brother to come watch TV with her', to which they both decided that the rest of Kazuma's schoolwork could be saved for another day.
But now it was evening, with Kazuma having cooked dinner almost two hours ago, at Komekko's behest, and Megumin was currently walking her sister from the bathroom to their shared bedroom. They'd gotten out of the bath a few minutes ago and now that she'd finally finished brushing her little sister's teeth, it was time to put her to bed. Though as she looked down at the little girl, who was already almost asleep, she highly doubted that she'd cause her much trouble when it came to bedtime.
After tucking the small girl into her futon and moving Chomusuke to Komekko's pillow to 'guard' her, Megumin turned towards the small mirror on the other side of the room and ran her hand through her still slightly damp bangs in an attempt to brush them back into place, before wishing her little sister goodnight and softly closing the door behind her.
Making her way down the hallway towards the front room, Megumin perked her ears up as she began to hear something; voices. The first voice was Kazuma, that much she was 100% sure of, but it was the other voice, or maybe voices, that she couldn't recognise. But whoever it was, Kazuma was seemingly in the middle of a conversation with them.
"Hey, Kazuma, did you have any idea that she was completely loaded? I mean look at this room!" A voice, she was pretty sure it was a girl, rang out as Megumin tentatively opened the door, looking around for a moment until she made eye contact with Kazuma, who was sitting on the couch, with his phone out in front of him.
"Oi, Aqua, you better not start spending her money on whatever you want just because she's rich. I said 'best behaviour', remember?" Kazuma's eyebrow twitched as he angrily glared at his phone, before his expression softened when he finally noticed the girl standing in the doorway, looking directly at him. He gave her a small wave with his free hand that soon turned into a beckoning motion, inviting her to come over and join him.
"It is quite alright, Kazuma," As Megumin made her way from the door to the couch, a new voice, also female, spoke out, "Aqua has indeed been on her best behaviour. She has not caused me any trouble since we've arrived."
"Yet," He deadpanned.
Megumin pulled on the sides of her hoodie, smoothing it out, as she sat down on the couch, a metre or so away from where Kazuma was sitting. Now that she could actually see his phone's screen, she quickly found her theories to be true as she saw that he was on a video call with the two girls.
She couldn't help but shrink back a little as she saw them. 'These two look like models. Like, they're front page of a magazine beautiful. How the hell does Kazuma not only know, but speak so casually to girls like these two?' The poor girl's thoughts ran at a hundred miles a minute as she processed this new information about her friend. 'He doesn't even look like he cares! Is he really that close to these girls who look like they could easily become famous idols?'.
'What if one of them is his…?'.
Megumin quickly shook her head to quickly dissipate the line of thinking she had been going down. Instead of letting herself get depressed over assumptions that might not even be true, She swiftly shuffled in close next to Kazuma until she could see her own face mirrored in the corner of his phone screen.
"Umm, hi," Megumin clumsily introduced herself as she gave a small wave to the two girls on the other end of the video call.
"Hey, Kazuma?" The blue haired girl asked after a few moments of shocked silence between the two older girls, "Who exactly uhhh… is she?".
"Huh? I told you earlier, didn't I?" Kazuma responded, a thoughtful expression adorning his face, "I'm staying with a friend for the Spring break. This is Megumin."
The other girl - a tall woman with long blonde hair - nodded in confirmation, "Yes, you did say so earlier. It is nice to meet you Megumin, my name is Darkness, a friend of Kazuma. I must say, it is truly kind of you to allow Kazuma to stay with you and your family in his time of need."
She was pleasantly surprised by how polite and formal the woman was. "Yeah, nice to meet you too, Darkness!" She tried to make a good first impression with this girl, "And you don't have to compliment me for helping Kazuma… I-I'm sure he'd do the same for me,". She couldn't help but internally curse as her cheeks heated up ever so slightly as she talked about Kazuma, but she quickly became a lot more at ease when she saw the boy smiling in her peripheral vision.
"Megumin… Megumin… Me-gu-min…" She heard the blue haired girl mumble her name a few times in thought as she rubbed her chin in thought, seemingly trying extremely hard to recall something.
"Psst, Kazuma," Megumin whispered to him, "Umm… what exactly is that girl doing?".
"Oh, her? Don't worry about it," He said back, completely un-phased by the girl's odd behaviour, "Just give her a few seconds… right about now-".
"Megumin! I know that name!" The girl in question proclaimed, "You're the girl Kazuma always sits with on the bus. Huh, I honestly just assumed he was making that whole thing up…".
"Oi, what exactly are you trying to suggest about me?" Both Megumin and Darkness found themselves stifling laughter at his obvious indignation, "Why would I even need to make something like that up?".
"I just assumed that no sane girl would actually wanna sit next to someone like you," She innocently said, only angering Kazuma further.
"You actually said it!".
"Anyways, I'm Aqua. Kazuma is really lucky to have someone like me as a roommate, don't you think?".
"You were the one who burnt down my apartment, you shitty NEET!" Kazuma quietly yelled, only keeping his voice down for the sake of the sleeping Komekko.
"That again!?" She shouted as tears pricked the corners of her eyes, "You're not gonna stay mad at me about that forever, are you?".
"And why shouldn- Tch, never mind," He groaned in frustration at the girl before recomposing himself, "So you two aren't having any problems over there, I assume?".
"No, everything is completely fine on our end," Darkness assured him while Aqua muttered out a string of childish insults, "Is everything okay with you? I do still feel somewhat bad for abandoning you, even if everything seems to have worked out for you in the end."
"Mhm, I already told you that it's fine. Things have honestly been going better than expected," Kazuma replied as he looked at Megumin, the warmth in his gaze only visible to her, "I'd probably be in a much worse position right now if it wasn't for Megumin."
She hoped her gulp wasn't loud enough to be heard by the others, "I'm glad I could help you."
The boy nodded with a smile before refocusing his attention on his phone, "I don't really think there's anything else to discuss yet. Darkness, let me know whenever you find out what your dad's gonna do about your housing from now on, I'll look out for cheap apartments in the meantime. I'd feel bad if you had nowhere to stay when you come back, especially since you'll be busy with college starting."
Darkness gave him her thanks and they said their goodbyes, with the two girls telling Megumin that it was nice to meet her, and Aqua began reminding her to be cautious around 'Scumzuma' until Kazuma angrily hung up the call and flopped back onto the couch.
"I hate that girl… I'm starting to feel sorry for Darkness now…" Kazuma complained, then turned to look at Megumin, who was currently only an inch or so away from practically sitting on his lap, "Sorry about that. I hadn't really considered that it might've been a little awkward for you."
"Yeah, it was kinda awkward," She mumbled, very much aware of how close her body was to him, yet she had no intention of moving even an inch away, "But it was also kinda nice to meet your friends."
"Friend is not the word I'd use to describe Aqua," The brown haired teen bitterly chuckled.
Megumin let out a soft laugh that transformed into a loud yawn halfway through, letting her head rest against his shoulder.
"O-oi, Megumin?".
The girl in question pretended to ignore his stuttering and instead took the opportunity to grab his phone from his hand. "I'm bored," She rolled her head slightly to look up at him, trying to ignore how her heart rate began to speed up as she felt her body leaning against his, "Show me something interesting, you know that I almost never get the chance to use a smartphone."
The object of her affection seemed to have calmed down a little, his face returning to a neutral expression and his body relaxing. "Mhm, fine."
Kazuma groaned slightly as he rolled over onto his back, deciding that it might just be best to bite the bullet and get up already. He lazily fumbled around with his hands until he managed to unplug his phone from its charger to pull it from the bedside table to in front of his eyes.
'8:31am. Yeah, I really should get up now.'
Currently, Kazuma was lying down in the bed that was usually occupied by Megumin's parents, as was the sleeping arrangement that he and Megumin had decided on the day before. As his thoughts lingered on Megumin, he couldn't help but think about the previous evening.
It had actually been a fairly normal - and enjoyable - evening, all things considered. The two of them had simply just spent a few hours sitting on the couch and watching videos on Kazuma's phone, at Megumin's request, but that wasn't what had him so caught up over their time together. What he was really thinking about was how close Megumin had been to him the whole evening, physically speaking. Leaning against him, resting her head against his shoulder, grabbing onto his arm, the list went on. Of course, it's not like Kazuma minded any of it one bit, in fact, he really did enjoy her contact, maybe more than he should.
Thinking about it, their friendship had never been adverse to physical contact, with playful attacks and occasional touches being commonplace, not to mention the few *ahem* interesting situations they'd found themselves in from time to time. Even so, Kazuma couldn't help but feel as though the girl had become much more intimate over the past few weeks, acting much bolder towards him than he had come to expect from her. He had honestly considered just directly asking her about it last night, but he was worried that pointing it out would pretty much destroy the moment.
Though he could've continued further down that very path of thought for a while longer, and a part of him very much wanted to do so, Kazuma eventually relented and drowsily climbed out of bed, tossing his phone onto the blankets. Today was Sunday, and although he'd generously been given yesterday off, no such luxury would be afforded to him today. Recalling the message he'd sent his boss last night, the boy began to question if taking the lunchtime shift was really such a good idea after all. Considering that the commute to work would take him around fourty minutes, and his shift started at 10:30, he currently had just over an hour before he had to leave.
Choosing to forgo getting changed into a clean set of clothes until he'd showered, Kazuma opened the bedroom door in his makeshift nightwear, looking out into the hallway to see a familiar face coming down from the other end at the same time.
"Oh, you're finally up," Megumin, who was already washed and dressed, made her way towards him, "Good morning."
"Mhm, mornin' Megumin," He lazily greeted her, leaning against the doorframe, "How long have you been awake for?".
"About an hour now," She idly played with the sleeves of her sweater as she spoke, "Me and Komekko have already eaten, she was too hungry to wait and I didn't know when you'd be waking up, sorry."
"It's fine, I don't really mind," Kazuma responded, making his way towards the kitchen; until a small head popped out from the door to the front room.
"Big brother!" The excitable little girl ran up to him, "Can you and big sis play more games with me? Pleaaase!".
"Sorry," Kazuma crouched down to pat Komekko on the shoulder, "Big brother has to go to work in a little bit. How about we play some more games this afternoon?".
He could tell that the toddler wasn't at all happy about the news, but she thankfully just nodded her head up and down a few times before running over to Megumin, "Big sis! You have to play with me until big brother gets back!".
Megumin smiled widely upon hearing her little sister asking to spend time with her. "R-right! How about if big sis looks around in the closet later and tries to find some board games for us to play?" Getting a joyous response from her little sister, she then switched her attention to Kazuma, "So, how long is your shift gonna be?".
"Four hours. No matter which one I take, they're both four hours," He informed her, "I'm doing 10:30 to 2:30 today, but the other shift is five 'til nine."
"10:30? And you haven't even started getting ready yet!?" Megumin chastised him, shaking the boy by his shoulders, "Never mind, you go take a shower, I'll make you something to eat."
"Oi, I'll be fine, I still have more than enough time to get ready," Kazuma grabbed her wrists and pried her hands away from his shoulders. He was ready to retort and tell her he really didn't need her help, but he could tell that she just worried about him being late and wanted to help him, in her own strange little way. "Look, alright, fine. I'll go take a quick shower now. Just let me go grab a clean set of clothes."
"Good," She simply replied, a smile now back on her face, as she led Komekko into the kitchen.
"So, let me get this straight, your roommate really burnt down your entire apartment complex? Like, the entire thing?". Chris asked, sitting on the countertop.
"For the third time, yes," Kazuma told her as he wiped down a nearby table, "Do you not believe me or something?".
"Oh no, I believe you completely," She used one hand to poorly hide her giggling, "This is the exact kind of situation that would happen to you."
"I'm glad at least someone understands how bullshit my luck is," The part-timer dryly responded, "Seriously, why does my life have to be so difficult?".
Chris hummed in agreement, sending him a sympathetic look. "You know, if you have nowhere else to stay, you could always crash out here after hours. It's not ideal, but it should be a decent enough roof over your head until you can find somewhere more permanent. I won't take it out of your pay check, I promise."
"Not necessary, chief," Kazuma balled up and tossed the rag he had been using towards his boss, who stretched her hand out to catch it, "I'm staying with a friend over the break, so that should be more than enough time to find a new place."
"Staying with a friend, you say?" The older girl had a mischievous look on her face as she tossed him a clean rag and he moved onto a different table, "Would said friend happen to be a girl?".
"I get the feeling that you're about to say something outrageous…".
"Nothing like that, I just think it's about time you finally got a girlfriend, helper," She said matter-of-factly, hopping down from the counter, "You do keep going on about how you're 'in the prime of your life' yet as far as I'm aware, you haven't even had your first kiss."
"We could change that right now," The teen boy responded flatly.
"I really should've expected that," She gave him an exasperated look, then shrugging, "You're lucky I haven't written you up for sexual harassment yet."
He wanted to fight back, but quickly realised that their usual conversations probability did not at all fit under 'suitable workplace conduct'. "True," Was the response he eventually settled on, "But if you wrote me up, you'd have to write up Darkness too, that girl is far worse than I could ever be."
"Fair point, if I started writing you guys up, I'd probably run out of employees pretty quickly."
"And I'd lose my job. So how about we agree to-" He was interrupted by the familiar sound of the café door opening, "Oi, chief, we finally have another customer. I'll head to the kitchen, you man the front."
"Hey, I'm back!" Kazuma called out as he opened the front door, using the spare key Megumin had given him beforehand.
There was a brief moment of silence until a head of dark brown hair popped out from the front room. "Shhh!" Megumin held a finger to her lips, "I just got Komekko to finally take a nap, please don't wake her up again."
Kazuma nodded as he made his way into the front room, "Mhm, so what have you been doing since then?".
"Waiting for you," She answered as she moved away from the door to sit on the couch. Upon noticing the boy's slightly surprised expression, she elaborated, "I've only been waiting for around ten minutes. I knew you'd be back around this time, so I just decided to wait for you to get home."
"Sounds like you're bored," Was all he said.
"A little bit, yeah," She said as Kazuma sat down next to her, "We should go out and do something, I don't like being cooped up in here for too long."
He looked over at her, somewhat interested by her suggestion, "Right now?".
Megumin seemed to be mulling over something in silence for a few seconds before she responded. "No, I don't wanna wake Komekko up now but I also don't wanna leave her home alone, so we can't go anywhere right now. But if you take the later shift tomorrow, we could probably go do something while she's at kindergarten."
"What do you have in mind?" Kazuma inquired.
"Huh? Oh, right," Megumin turned to look directly at him, quickly regretting it as her cheeks heated up a little. She couldn't help but feel as if she was asking him out on a date, and her composure only further fell apart as she realised that she had no idea where they would actually go. "Umm… well, we could uhhh… There's this pancake place we could go to…?".
"So you don't have anything in mind, I see," Kazuma couldn't help but chuckle under his breath at the poor girl next to him.
"I can hear that! Stop laughing at me!" The beyond flustered girl sharply turned her head away from him, "...Jerk."
Kazuma couldn't deny how much he enjoyed seeing her become so embarrassed and bashful because of him. While part of him knew it'd probably be kinder to stop teasing her for now, the other part of him quickly took over as he remembered a recent exchange between the two.
"It doesn't really matter," He reassured her, comfortingly patting her head as he spoke, "We can just get the train into Axel and figure it out from there."
Megumin flinched ever so slightly in surprise under his initial touch, but made no attempt to move her head or push his hand away. "Th-that," She tried her best to subtly clear the lump that had formed in her throat, "That sounds good to me."
Under the gentle solace of Kazuma petting her hair, an idea suddenly sparked into her head. At first, she had very much intended to ignore it, considering it to be going a little too far, but after how much Kazuma had been teasing her, she felt it was fair enough that she got her revenge; and seek even more comfort from him in the process.
As she felt the boy's hand briefly break contact with her head, she scooted away from him slightly. Once she got her desired distance from him, she let herself limply flop down onto her side, her head coming to rest on Kazuma's lap. She nuzzled her head into his thighs a little for effect, thankful that he couldn't properly see her face from this angle.
She felt Kazuma freeze up. "W-what do you think you're doing?".
"I'm tired," Megumin groaned, "Komekko was even hungrier than usual today, so now I wanna rest. I'm not sure what you're complaining about, I thought that a pervert like you would love having a girl lay on your lap."
He rolled his eyes but bit back the retort he had in mind because, truthfully, he certainly did enjoy this. "Fine," He paused for a moment, "But you owe me now."
"Huh?".
"I'm generously letting you use my lap as a pillow," Kazuma raised his pointer finger, his embarrassment over Megumin's bold action slowly being replaced by his usual confidence, "So it's only fair that you return the favour at some point in the future."
"...Fine," Megumin spoke back after a short moment of silence between the two, then mumbling something that sounded a lot like 'pervert', though the tone of her voice didn't contain any contempt or irritation. She felt her heart rate slowly return to a more manageable pace as she allowed her body to fully relax into the warmth of Kazuma's lap.
In truth, she had been lying earlier when she told him she wanted to rest. Sure, she had been telling the truth about Komekko being even hungrier than usual and her being somewhat tired, but she didn't really have any intention to take a nap. That being said, she'd also never expected the boy's lap to be as comfortable as it was.
Maybe she was just biased. Actually, that had to be it, there's no way she'd be enjoying this one bit if it was anyone else. But, with Kazuma, feeling his warmth, resting on him, it was a feeling that she wanted to experience over and over again. She allowed her eyes to slowly flutter shut as she focused solely on the current moment.
Kazuma frowned a bit as he angled his head slightly away from the girl resting on his lap, yet still keeping his eyes locked onto her. He really didn't understand how this girl could go from shy and embarrassed to bold and assertive in a matter of seconds, though he certainly had no complaints about it. That being said, part of him did feel a little insecure about how this girl was the one making such moves on him, instead of the other way around.
Deciding to just do something about it, and seeing as he really didn't think she would mind it, Kazuma moved one of his hands to her head and started to softly brush her hair with his fingers. Due to the angle her head was positioned at, lying on her side and facing away from him, his hand movements felt fairly unnatural at first, but after a few strokes, he found himself in a rhythm and felt his hands glide through her hair as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
He felt her react under his touch, a few stunted breaths are a slight shiver as he touched her scalp, but nothing that indicated that she wanted him to stop. On the contrary, he felt one of her hands move up grip onto his left leg, just above the knee, and her hot breath on his legs. In that moment, he couldn't stop himself from being entranced by the dark haired beauty. As he continued to tenderly comb her short hair, he couldn't stop the pleasant daydreams that filled his head, daydreams involving Megumin.
He was desperately praying that his 'son' wouldn't wake up, and the adorable noises she was making weren't making that task any easier for him. Seriously, this entire thing was making him way too excited. Resigning himself to the fact that he'd need to have some 'alone time' with his son later on, he tried his best to keep his cool for the time being.
Megumin's face burned an intense shade of red as she nuzzled her cheek deeper into Kazuma's lap, her hand weakly gripping onto the fabric of his pants. His soft fingers, still a little cold from the April air, put her entire body at ease as he affectionately ran them through her hair. Her eyes stayed shut tight as she involuntarily let out small sounds of happiness, the amount of physical affection she was getting from him sending her brain into overdrive.
It was only after 20 more minutes of staying as they were that Kazuma realised that the girl must've fallen asleep at some point, a small line of drool coming from her mouth.
"I can't believe you," Megumin complained as she fixed the collar of her undershirt, "You could've just woken me up, y'know?".
"I'm aware," He smirked, "You did say that you were tired though."
She huffed at the boy, "...Still, you didn't have to let me sleep for almost five hours…".
Kazuma shrugged sheepishly, "Fair."
"Well, it doesn't really matter, it's fine," The girl looked away, "So there's no point in being upset with you. And… thanks for putting Komekko to bed for me."
"I didn't know that one lap pillow could make you so submissive."
"...You can't just expect me to get flustered every single time you say something indecent," She said, brows tightly knit.
"It's a lot less fun if you don't react at all," Kazuma yawned and stretched his arms above his head.
Megumin snickered "Oh, look who's tired now. Would you like a lap pillow now?".
"I'm down," His reply was almost instant.
"Y-you're not even gonna hesitate?" Megumin stuttered, "Like, not even for a few seconds?".
"Huh? Why should I?" He shot back, "You were the one who offered it."
"W-well, y-yes, that is true," She fidgeted with her hands, "But it was mostly a joke…".
Kazuma looked disappointed - and a little annoyed - for a moment, until he raised an eyebrow at her, leaning forwards ever so slightly, "Mostly?".
Megumin moved a little closer towards him, her face only a few inches away from his own. She gulped, "I do still owe you one, d-don't I?".
His eyes darted all over the place. She was so close to him that he could feel her breath on his face, he had no doubt that she could feel his too. "Y-yeah," Kazuma nervously whispered, "You do."
In that moment, with her so up close to him, he found that he had to hold himself back from moving in to kiss her. He became hyper aware of every single detail on her face; her brilliant red eyes, her tiny little button nose, the bangs that came down to perfectly frame her face, the soft glow of her cheeks. It all felt like too much for him. She looked absolutely beautiful in that moment.
Completely overtaken by the desire he saw in her eyes, Kazuma began to close the distance between them. Then, just as Megumin started to lean forwards as well-
*Bzzt!*.
'It's just my phone,' He stopped moving for a moment, 'Whatever is about to happen in this moment is more important than whatever notification I just got.'
But again, *Bzzt!*.
As Kazuma scowled in annoyance, he also noticed Megumin's expression change. Though her face was still as red as his own, the shine in her eyes seemed to have dimmed slightly.
*Bzzt!*.
"Y-you should probably check that," She breathed out, still not letting her gaze leave him.
He averted his own gaze in response, "R-right."
Mentally cursing over the fact that what very well could have led to his first kiss had just been interrupted - and potentially ruined completely - by his own damn phone, he dug around in his pockets until he finally grabbed onto the object that was currently causing him so much grief and yanked it towards his face.
All his anger quickly dropped from his face as he adopted an expression that Megumin couldn't fully read, but she could tell that it wasn't anything good.
Kazuma let out an exasperated sigh as he studied his phone screen. "Shit..." He mumbled to himself as he started to type out a reply, writing for around ten seconds before quickly deleting the message and beginning anew.
"Hey, Kazuma… Kazuma?" Megumin reached out and touched the boy's shoulder when he didn't respond, instead keeping his eyes locked onto his phone screen.
He looked up upon feeling her touch, being met with her face, etched with concern. "I'm Kazuma, what's up?".
"Is everything okay?" She softly asked him, not letting go of his shoulder, "What were those messages about?".
"Yeah, everything's fine, don't worry," He almost cringed as he saw the look she was giving him, "I'm serious, nothing's wrong. It's just that… I told my brother about my apartment burning down earlier… and now my parents want to call me to talk about it, apparently."
As if to prove that he was telling the truth, he turned his phone to her, allowing her to see the messages from his brother.
"Isn't t-that a good thing, though?" Megumin asked, not fully confident in her question.
Kazuma looked away, face scrunched up. She could tell that he really didn't want to talk about it. But just as she was about to let go of his shoulder, he spoke again.
"It isn't a bad thing, not necessarily," He turned his head back toward her, "It's just that, well, I haven't exactly talked to them in a while. Over half a year now, I think. And… last time we spoke, it uh… ended pretty badly."
The small smile he tried to put on did nothing to relieve Megumin of her worries. She knew that Kazuma and his parents didn't have a perfect relationship, she gathered that much from the fact that he was living on his own at age sixteen, but she'd never assumed it was bad enough to affect Kazuma as much as it clearly did.
"Do you..." She paused, questioning if it was really the right thing to ask in this situation, "Do you want to talk to them?".
"Of course I do," He affirmed, a warm feeling building up inside of him as he saw how genuinely worried for him she looked, "Even if the fight was… pretty bad, they're still my parents. I don't hate them for it. From their perspective, I can see why they would be mad at me."
After Megumin remained silent, lost in her thoughts, Kazuma looked back to his phone and finished typing out a reply to his little brother, only slightly hesitating as he pressed the send button.
"What did you tell him?" Her voice caused him to once again return his attention to the girl. All things considered, it was pretty hard to ignore her. They were still as close as they had been before Kazuma's phone had gone off.
"Just that they can call whenever they want, my phone number hasn't changed," He felt his mood shift to a slightly more pleasant one, though he still had the same feeling of unease around him.
"'Kay," Megumin smiled at him, hoping to cheer him up a little, "As long as that's what you think is best."
His lips upturned ever so slightly, "Do you think that it wasn't?".
"N-no, it's not that," She let her hand slip from his shoulder as she looked away bashfully, "I've just… never seen you like this. I don't want you to force yourself to talk to them if it makes you anxious."
Kazuma silently gasped at her heartfelt words, his mouth agape. Sometimes he forgot how much this girl clearly cared for him. Squashing the lump in his throat and trying to ignore the blush that seared his cheeks, he collected his thoughts before talking again.
"I'm not anxious… not really," Megumin looked back at him as he talked, her face a similar colour as his own, "I do want to talk to them. I don't wanna have my relationship with my parents ruined forever just because of one argument, y'know? But, still, talking to them again after cutting all contact for so long… it feels so… weird? Unnatural? Off-putting? Not really sure what the right word for it is. Guess I've just been putting it off for so long that it feels a bit daunting to finally talk to them again, maybe?".
He turned away, embarrassed, after spilling his honest thoughts out to her, only occasionally glancing back to see how she was reacting. Megumin wasn't used to seeing this side of Kazuma, but she couldn't stop herself from finding him adorable as he told her about how he truly felt, something she desperately wished he'd do more often. With how vulnerable he was being to her, and only her, she was overwhelmed by her burning desire to wrap her arms around the boy and never let go.
*Bzzt!*.
Just as Megumin was about to move in to tightly embrace her most cherished person, Kazuma's phone buzzed again, pulling his attention towards it. "Huh," He chuckled awkwardly, "That was fast."
"What is it?" The crimson eyed girl asked, then her eyes widened slightly as she realised what he meant, "They wanna call right now?".
"Mhm, seems to be the case."
Megumin was quiet as she looked down at his phone, contemplating the difficult thoughts that clouded her head.
"Can I stay here?" Kazuma sent her a confused look, so she elaborated, "While you call them, I mean. I won't say anything, I'd just like to stay here. Is that okay?".
"I know that you're just concerned and that's nice and all, but seriously, I'll be fine Megumin. I don't need you to watch over me," He flinched as he saw the slightly hurt look on her face, "B-but if it'll put you at ease, then you can stay here, I guess."
A tentative smile graced her features, "Okay."
After a few tense minutes of waiting, Kazuma's phone finally began to ring. Momentarily glancing over at Megumin, he sighed and put the call on speakerphone as he accepted the call.
"Hello, Kazuma?" The voice of a middle aged woman rang out.
"Hey, mom," He cautiously replied, hoping that she'd be the one leading the conversation. They were the ones who asked to call, after all.
"Ah, hey, son" A new, masculine voice came from the phone, "It's been a while."
"Mhm, yeah."
"So, uh, your little brother told me that your apartment building burnt down," His mother told him, "Is this true? How did the fire start?".
Kazuma grimaced at her second question, but Megumin wasn't entirely sure why, it seemed like a fairly normal thing to ask. "Yeah, it burnt down Friday night," The boy raked his free hand through his hair, "The fire started due to faulty wiring, apparently. The place was pretty old and cheaply built, so I'm not surprised, but it still sucks for me."
Megumin narrowed her eyes at the boy, 'Faulty wiring? Why is he blaming the fire on faulty wiring now? I thought it was pretty well established that the fire was caused by his… room…mate. Oh...'.
She wasn't 100% sure, but after hearing Kazuma lie to his mother about the true cause of the fire, Megumin felt as though she might have an inkling as to what had caused Kazuma's parents to cut him off for so long.
'Did he really deal with all of that… just so he could ensure that Aqua had somewhere to stay?'.
As the realisation hit her, she once again remembered why she held so much affection for him. What other person would constantly moan and complain about someone yet would still go to such extreme lengths to help them? No one else would, only Kazuma. Yet despite that kindness, what did he get? His own parents not speaking to him for months and his home burnt to the ground by the very person he was helping.
It was all so… unfair.
Megumin held in a shaky breath as she felt her eyes well up with moisture, grateful that Kazuma was too distracted to look at her right now. Despite how much she wanted to cry for the boy right then, she knew she couldn't. She knew that if he saw her crying right now, Kazuma would stop the call in an instant to make sure that she was okay. Megumin wouldn't take this important moment away from him.
So, as she focused her entire willpower onto steadying her breathing and keeping her eyes from welling up, Megumin reached out to take hold of Kazuma's free hand, intertwining their fingers.
The high schooler's eyebrow twitched at her sudden contact, his face heating up as he looked down to see her hand securely gripping his own. He snapped his head up to look at her, ready to send her a mean glare for trying to tease him at a time like this, but he instead found his facial features softening at the look she was giving him. As he looked between her and their interlocked hands, he was brought back to the last time they'd held hands, just two nights ago.
"I'm just trying to comfort you…".
'…Right. How stupid of me to think that she was trying to tease me.'
His head tilted upwards to observe the distressed look on her face, his heart aching for her in that moment.
'She's agonising over my situation, isn't she? Even after I told her that it was fine.'
"...Kazuma? Are you there?" His mom's voice broke him out of his trance as he remembered that he was in fact in the middle of a very important phone call.
"Yeah, Mom, I'm here. I just got a little distracted, my bad," Kazuma replied sheepishly.
"It's fine," His father spoke up, "Anyway, tell us, where are you right now, have you found somewhere new to stay?".
The teen squeezed Megumin's hand, "Kinda? I'm staying with a friend for the Spring break, but beyond that I don't really have anywhere to live, no. I do plan to start looking for cheap apartments in the meantime though."
"Do you really still intend to live on your own, Kazuma?" His mother asked him, "You know, we would be happy to have you move back in once we get back from our vacation."
Kazuma stayed silent, thinking hard, before he responded, "Sorry. I know that you both don't like it, but… I'd like to keep living on my own for a little while longer. Just a few months or so, I promise."
"Are you serious?" His dad's irritation was as clear as day. He took a deep breath before continuing, "If you wanna keep living on your own, you're gonna have to give us a good reason for doing so. No more 'I just want to do it', I want a real answer."
The girl at his side began gently rubbing shapes into his hand with her thumb as she watched his brows twitch in annoyance. "Look, I just have some things I need to take care of before I can move back in, okay? Once I've dealt with all that stuff, I'll move back in. I'm not trying to avoid you or anything."
Kazuma could tell that his parents weren't happy with his answer, but was grateful that they didn't push it any further. With the topic of his housing out of the way, he spent the next fifteen or so minutes engaged with catching up with his parents and awkward small talk. Things weren't great, but the mood did gradually evolve into something that didn't seem that uncomfortable.
"Mhm, yeah. Bye mom, bye dad. We'll talk more some other time, have a good vacation," He said, before abruptly, yet politely, hanging up the call and collapsing backwards into the couch, sighing dramatically.
His life still wasn't getting any easier, unfortunately. Not yet.