- Chapter 5: Friends For This Lonely Middle Schooler! -
Kazuma felt the soft gust of breath warm up the chilly air ever so slightly as he exhaled, leaning back to rest against the slate tiles. It was currently around ten thirty, maybe closer to eleven; he wasn't sure. He couldn't really be bothered to check right now, anyway. Upon arriving back at Megumin's house, he'd quickly discovered the aforementioned girl passed out on the couch, having fallen asleep while she was waiting for him to come back, he assumed.
After a few minutes of mentally debating over the best course of action, he reluctantly picked her up as gently as possible and carried the sleeping girl to her room, being extra careful not to wake either her or Komekko up as he hurriedly tucked her into her futon. Banishing the thoughts he got when looking down at her sleeping form from his head, he'd silently fled the room, praying that Megumin wouldn't try to bring it up with him tomorrow morning. Though, once he reached the doorway, he did take a few seconds to enjoy the adorable sight of Komekko tightly hugging her brand new plushie, it seems that she'd liked the gift after all.
Despite the other two residents of the house already being fast asleep, Kazuma still felt completely awake. He wasn't really surprised though. While he was nowhere near as bad as he used to be when it came to going to sleep at a reasonable time, he was still certainly the type of person who went to bed later than most. So, with nothing else to do, Kazuma had grabbed a small snack from the fridge and made his way outside.
All of which led him to where he was now, laying down on the roof of Megumin's house. Joined, surprisingly, by Chomusuke, who had followed him outside and nimbly made her way onto the roof after him. With the house only being a single floor tall, reaching the roof had been no problem for Kazuma, only requiring him to scale a small stone wall next to the house before he could quite easily pull himself up onto the tiled roof.
Truthfully, stargazing wasn't exactly something that Kazuma did all too often, but the occasional moments where the activity called out to him were ones that he'd come to cherish. He allowed a nostalgic smile to tug at his lips as he reminisced on the times where he would be standing out on the balcony of his small apartment, with a drunk Aqua passed out a few metres away. Or the one time where, on a particularly snowy night a few months ago, he and Chris had camped out in the café for the night. Though, due to the location, the light pollution of the surrounding town had ruined any chance of getting a good view of the night sky, much to his annoyance.
Right now, much like the other times he would look to the sky, Kazuma was troubled. By two things, mainly. The first, and more obvious, issue was the issue of where he would live. Sure, as of right now, he had a comfortable roof over his head, but he knew that he only had just under two weeks to find a more permanent place to stay. Though, as of the current moment, he'd made almost zero progress when it came to that matter. He already knew that Axel was a bust; everything there was just too expensive for him, especially if he was still going to have to room with Aqua, something that was unfortunately looking very likely for him.
Honestly, there wasn't really much for him to actually think about. Kazuma just needed to actually find somewhere, something that was easier said than done, but still very much possible. As long as it was liveable, within his budget and not too far out of the way, he didn't see himself being too picky over the specifics of the place. Beggars can't be choosers, after all.
Coming to a somewhat satisfying conclusion with one of his problems and deciding that he'd take a proper look around the local area within the next few days, Kazuma propped himself up with his hands, now in a sitting position, hoping to make himself more comfortable before he moved on to tackle his second problem; Megumin.
Not that Megumin herself was a problem, she'd actually been a great housemate so far. The problem was instead how he felt around her, or more accurately, about her. Kazuma ran a hand through Chomusuke's soft fur, getting a low purr in response, as he allowed his head to fill up with thoughts of that girl. As he did, he found that one thought, one realisation, kept coming up in his brain over and over again, as if it was screaming out for him to finally fully accept it.
At some point, over the last few months, he'd found himself slowly falling for Megumin without even realising.
Whatever it was, it wasn't quite love, or maybe it was and Kazuma just didn't want to use such a strong word to describe what he felt towards his friend. But, for some reason, that idea didn't surprise him. The idea that he was, in some way, in love with Megumin didn't sound all that bad. As he kept running that thought through his head, he even started to almost... like it.
"Well that was… simple," He muttered to himself, getting a strange look from his feline companion.
All this time, he'd been pretty damn sure that he was in love with Eris, it only made sense, after all. She had helped him at his lowest, she was possibly the kindest girl he'd ever met and she was hands down the prettiest girl in his school. All of those things were still true, they probably always would be, but as he lingered on his thoughts and feelings pertaining to the two of them, he couldn't help but notice subtle differences in how he felt about them.
He couldn't really be 100% sure, inexperienced with romance as he was, but while he would classify what he felt towards Eris as a crush, his feelings towards Megumin felt… deeper? More complex, maybe.
Kazuma shook his head, deciding that it would be a waste of time to try to define something so vague. There was no real reason to do so anyway, the knowledge that he was maybe, just maybe, in love with her felt like a satisfying enough answer to his concerns.
"But still," His mumbling was interrupted by a loud yawn that escaped his lips, "Even if I do like her, the hell am I supposed to do about it?".
"C-can you… stop looking at me like that? Please?" Megumin asked from across the room, "You're making me feel as though I did something wrong, o-or is there something on my face?".
From his resting spot upon the couch, Kazuma continued to keep his eyes locked onto her, a judgemental expression plastered onto his face.
"Hey, Megumin," He finally spoke, instantly getting her attention, "You don't think that I forgot about what you said yesterday, do you?".
She had a puzzled look on her face, "I said a lot of things yesterday, you'll have to be more specific."
Kazuma let his cheek rest against one of his propped up hands as he elaborated, "You said that you had some video games, right? Today's my day off from work, y'know, so I kinda just wanna spend the whole day lazing around."
Worried that she might try to deny his request, he continued. "I mean, I have had a tough past few days, don't you think that I deserve a rest every once in a while?".
Megumin huffed and rolled her eyes, but found herself having to fight back an amused grin as she spoke, "Jeez, you could've just asked me that normally instead of staring at me like that! And why do you have to sound so happy whenever you talk about being lazy?".
"So is that an 'okay', or…?" He snorted a little in amusement at the disgruntled girl.
"Well, you have been doing a good job of taking care of my little sister, and I really did have a lot of fun when we went out yesterday, so I guess it's only fair that you get to do something that you want to do. Y'know, just this once, even if it is acting like a slob," She said with a small smile as she started searching for something underneath the TV stand, "But, if you're just gonna lay about all day, then at least let me play too."
"I see no issue with that," Kazuma pushed himself into a sitting position, observing Megumin as she pulled out a cardboard box from the underside of the small table, "Multiplayer is usually more fun anyway. But listen up, I'm not doing anything else today, you hear me? I'm gonna spend today relaxing, properly, and under no condition will I allow anything to stop me."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Megumin squirmed around slightly for a second before she placed the box on the couch next to Kazuma, "Here. I'm gonna go use the bathroom quickly, so can you set it up while I'm gone?".
"Alright," Kazuma looked at the blank cardboard box, "I'll try. Even if it's something I've never used before, it should still be pretty simple to figure it out."
The red eyed girl had already begun to make her way to the door while he was talking, but she did briefly stop to give him a 'thanks', before hurrying out of the room.
Kazuma arched an eyebrow, 'Why does that girl always have to be so weird about going to the bathroom?'. Although, thinking about it, it might've had something to do with the many times he'd teased her about her old proclamations of 'Crimson demons don't need to use the bathroom!', whatever that was supposed to mean.
Ignoring her strange ways for now, Kazuma immediately got to work on folding back the flaps on the cardboard box, being pleasantly surprised upon glimpsing its contents. Admittedly, maybe shamefully so, he had honestly expected the console to be something either very old or very cheaply made, or possibly even both of those things. In his defence, it was Megumin's family he was talking about, he didn't expect them to have luxuries like a game console in the first place; they really were expensive.
Yet, despite that, the console inside was in fact not one from the previous century, nor was it some cheaply constructed bootleg. Sure, it wasn't exactly modern either, but the large purple cube that he spotted inside the box was certainly something that he, as a self proclaimed master of all types of games, instantly recognised. Though, with a design that unique, it would be hard not to recognise it.
With his previously low expectations completely smashed, he reached further into the box, quickly pulling out three controllers, though one of them looked a little worse for wear, along with all the necessary plugs and cords. Finally, at the very bottom of the box, Kazuma found a small pile of six different games. Despite the unfortunate realisation that half of the six were seemingly low-effort licenced games, the type that was only made the ride off of the success of a recent movie or show, the other three very much piqued his interest.
One, a popular fighting game, one that had earned an insane legacy on many parts of the internet that Kazuma would frequent in his free time. The second one, a multiplayer board game, a game that heavily relied on the player's luck, something he had in abundance, and finally, a mascot racing game. While he had never played that one specifically, he was very familiar with the series as a whole. Sure, he would've personally preferred an adventure game or sprawling MMORPG, those were his personal favourites, but he couldn't deny that in terms of local multiplayer games, he really had hit the jackpot.
Making quick work of plugging in the console and controllers, Kazuma got up and made his way back to the couch, where the TV remote had been left. As he lent down slightly to grab the remote, he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing a single time. He stayed frozen for a moment or two, not sure if he should answer or not. It wasn't his house, after all.
His eyebrow twitched. It was fine, it was probably just someone trying to sell him something anyway.
Yet when the doorbell rang once more, Kazuma quickly conceded and made his way towards the front door, slowly sliding it open to reveal the person outside, clutching a wicker basket full of all kinds of snacks and looking down at the floor in what was most likely embarrassment.
"H-hello, Megumin. I-I-I know this is a little out of the blue, as they say… hehe, b-but you did say that you wouldn't mind hanging out again at some p-point and I was just passing through the area so I thoug- K-K-KAZUMA!?" The shy girl's quiet mumbling was quickly replaced by a surprised yelp as she finally looked up from the ground, taking a sudden step backwards in shock.
"Yo, what's up Yunyun?" He greeted the girl, giving her a laid-back wave, "You here to hang out with Megumin?".
"Eh? Uh, ummm…" She twiddled her thumbs, obviously extremely nervous, not that Kazuma was surprised. While he had seen Yunyun quite a number of times before this, mostly when she would 'accidentally' follow Megumin - and him by extension - home from school, it was exceedingly rare that the two of them would actually talk to one another, with the girl usually running off in tears the moment she was discovered. Now that he thought about it, he could only really think of one or two actual conversations he'd ever had with Yunyun, as brief as they were.
"Y-yes," She eventually got out, constantly glancing between him and the floor, "But i-if you're already here to… h-hang out with her, then I won't interrupt, I'm sorry…".
With an utterly dejected look on her face, she slowly began to turn around, intending to quickly make her exit. Kazuma rolled his eyes in exasperation and groaned internally as his hand reached out to grab the girl's wrist, stopping her mid-turn.
"K-kazum-".
"Oi, Megumin!" He kept a gentle yet firm grip as he turned his head slightly to yell into the house, "One of your friends is outside, she says that she wants to hang out with you."
A few seconds later he heard Megumin's voice ring out in response, "O-oh? Okay then, I'll be there in a second, you can let her inside in the meantime."
"Will do," Kazuma called out, before he turned back to look at Yunyun. He flinched and retracted his hand when he noticed her glassy eyes, a bit worried that he'd somehow done something to upset her, only for the girl to look up at him with a smile filled with gratitude.
As he discreetly checked the girl out, it dawned upon him just how overdressed she was, compared to him and Megumin at least. While he was clad in the new tracksuit he'd bought yesterday - he hadn't bothered to get dressed yet - and Megumin was just wearing a simple t-shirt and shorts combo, Yunyun was dressed in a pale cream - practically white - turtleneck, a knee-length charcoal grey skirt, black tights and an admittedly very stylish looking jacket, a slightly lighter shade of grey than her skirt, that went down to just below her hips. And although he wasn't really an expert when it came to how girls got ready in the morning, he had the feeling that she'd probably spent much longer than usual on her hair too.
Along with the fact that she had most likely brought all that food as some kind of bribery for Megumin to let her in, Kazuma was seriously doubting that she'd 'just been passing through the area', not that he ever really believed that lie in the first place.
"Well?" He asked Yunyun as he walked back inside, exhaling the slightly discontent breath he'd been holding in, "You coming in or what?".
"S-so, Kazuma," Surprisingly, Yunyun was the one to initiate the conversation as they sat down in the front room, with Yunyun placing the gift basket down on the coffee table, "Are you sure that it's o-okay for me to b-be here while you and Megumin are already hanging out?".
"Well, actually," Kazuma sheepishly ran a hand through his hair, preparing for the worst, "We're not really hanging out, per say, I kinda uh… live here now."
Her reaction, unfortunately, was exactly what Kazuma had expected it to be. "Y-y-y-y-you what!?" She eventually squeaked, her eyes wide.
"Yunyun?" Megumin suddenly appeared in the doorway, just in time to hear the girl's outburst, "Why are you shouting? Kazuma, did you say something perverted to her? I don't really mind you making those jokes with me, but Yunyun is probably the type of girl who would take that stuff seriously."
"Oi!" Kazuma wanted to defend himself before the situation got out of hand, "I didn't say anyth-".
Out of nowhere, Yunyun spontaneously darted over to Megumin and latched onto her t-shirt, shaking her around wildly, "I-is Kazuma r-really telling the truth!? Do y-you two actually l-l-live together?".
"Ye-es we-we d-do, no-now ple-ease get o-off!" She managed to splutter out as she continued to be yanked back and forth by the other girl. Kazuma probably would've intervened and pried Yunyun off of her if the entire display wasn't so amusing to him.
Eventually, Megumin was able to slap the other girl's hands away from her now heavily creased t-shirt, a clearly unhappy expression on her face. "Anyway, yeah, Kazuma is staying with me and Komekko over the Spring break," She simply said, "His apartment burned down a few days ago, so he came to me, his best friend, for help. Obviously, as his friend, I was more than happy to help my friend."
"Q-quit it! You're just saying 'friend' over and over again on purpose to make fun of me!" Wailed Yunyun, before she seemingly caught onto something more important, now gazing at Kazuma, "Wait, y-your apartment really burnt down?".
"Mhm," He hummed in confirmation, "Luckily, no one was hurt, if that's what you're worried about."
The meek girl let out a relieved sigh, with Megumin cutting in shortly afterwards, "So anyway, Yunyun, why exactly are you here? You wanted to hang out, right?".
"Ah, yes!" Yunyun quickly snapped to attention, "I just happened to be p-passing through the neighbourhood and saw your house, s-so I thought that I'd see if you were in."
If the look on Megumin's face was an indication of anything, Kazuma could only assume that she believed Yunyun's story just about as much as he did. Sadly, Megumin wasn't even surprised about the fact that the other girl somehow knew where she lived, despite having never once told her that information.
"Hey, Kazuma," She waited patiently for his reply of 'I'm Kazuma' before she continued, "If you're done setting things up, why doesn't Yunyun play with us too, there are still three controllers, right?".
"Yeah, one of them is a bit scuffed up, but it should still work."
"So whaddya think?" The girl once again looked back towards their guest, "You wanna play video games with us?".
"Yes! Of c-course!".
"Wow, Kazuma, you really are good at this game… heh… heh," Yunyun attempted to compliment him as she looked down at her controller in abject despair.
"Please don't look so miserable, it makes me feel as though I've done something wrong even when I really haven't," Kazuma couldn't help but send her a pitiful glance as she once again completely failed to match the skill of her two opponents, "Look, if you're really struggling that much, I already said I don't mind if you and Megumin want to team up against me."
"Now hold on, that's not fair!" Megumin butted in, "Yunyun is more of a handicap than a helper, so how about she teams with you instead, since you've been winning the entire time."
"Hey! Don't call me a handicap!" The girl in question whined, beyond embarrassed, "I'm not a handicap, r-right Kazuma?".
Kazuma avoided making eye contact with her as he grabbed a candy bar from the gift basket in front of them, hastily unwrapping it. "Well, since Yunyun seems to be struggling with this game so much, how about we try one of the others?".
"I-it's even worse if you just ignore my question!".
Despite Kazuma's initial assumptions, things were going pretty well so far. Sure, Yunyun was not exactly good - to put it nicely - at a single one of the games they'd played so far, but from the looks of it, she was still very much enjoying herself. Megumin's constant challenging and taunting seemed to have made her more and more determined to win, igniting some inner competitive nature that Kazuma really hadn't expected from a girl like her.
Unfortunately for Yunyun, she was still beyond hopeless when it came to actually playing. No amount of determination and drive to win could fix that.
"I win again!" Megumin proudly proclaimed as she beat her new 'rival' once again, pumping her fist in victory.
"You didn't w-win anything, Kazuma beat you. Again," Yunyun desperately pointed at the screen, in an attempt to hammer it in that Megumin had yet to win a single round either, "Until you actually win, it doesn't count as a victory. So right now, we're still e-evenly matched."
"Not really," She explained, "Kazuma is freakishly good at things like this, so it's not really an even playing field against him. But both of us should be evenly matched when it comes to this, so as long as I keep beating you every time, it still counts as me winning."
"Th-that's such a lame excuse, Megumin!" The other girl shot back.
"I think that both of you are losers," Kazuma leaned back against the couch as two sets of deep crimson eyes snapped towards him, "I'm the one who's won every single time, after all. It is a little bit embarrassing that neither of you have beaten me even once."
"Hey!" Megumin huffed and glared at him, trying to look as intimidating as possible, "I don't care about winning or losing in something like this anyway, let's compete in a proper game instead of having to use these stupid controllers."
"I-I agree" Yunyun joined in, a determined glimmer in her eyes, "It m-might be fun to try something else…".
"You're on!".
Kazuma let out an exaggerated sigh, "Whatever, I'm gonna go make lunch now."
Kazuma had been pleasantly surprised when the two girls had both offered to help him make lunch, but quickly began to regret letting them help him once they started to ask him who was doing a better job of preparing lunch, clearly turning it into another opportunity to compete against each other. Although he quickly stopped his internal whining when he realised that they were doing practically all of the work for him, albeit unintentionally.
After lunch, Megumin had left Kazuma and Yunyun alone together for a few minutes while she went to prepare their next 'duel'. Though he would still hesitate to call it natural or comfortable, Kazuma did notice that Yunyun seemed to be a little more relaxed around him than she had been a few hours before, with their standard of conversation having progressed from extremely awkward to only somewhat awkward. Again, not great, but for a girl like Yunyun, it was a pretty big improvement.
Before long, Megumin came back and led the other two into the front room, where they were soon greeted by an interesting sight. The coffee table had been pushed aside and was now up against one of the side walls, while in its old place was…
"Oi, Yunyun," Kazuma leaned down slightly to loudly whisper to the girl next to him, "It's not usually supposed to be this big, right?".
She jumped a little bit at his closeness before she relaxed and put a hand in front of her mouth to whisper back, "N-no, I've never seen it be this big b-before. But it does look like it could be k-kinda fun like this."
"Amazed, aren't you?" Megumin asked as she posed in front of a large tower made of wooden blocks, "I assume that I don't need to explain how this game works to you two."
"Yeah, yeah. Pull out one of the blocks and place it back at the top without making the tower collapse. I think everyone has played Jenga before at least once," Kazuma responded, crossing his arms as he continued to look upon the huge tower, "Hey, out of curiosity, is there a reason why the blocks are so… big?".
True to his words, the wooden pieces used in the game were at least three times bigger than Kazuma had ever seen in any commercial version of this game, being almost the size of actual bricks.
"I dunno," Megumin shrugged, "My dad just made them that size. He made it when I was like six, so I didn't think to ask him about it at the time."
"W-wouldn't it be a little bit d-dangerous if that thing fell on someone?" Yunyun timidly asked, looking between the tower and the two other people in the room.
The boy put a hand to his chin in thought, "It might hurt a little if that did happen, but it doesn't look like it'd be bad enough to cause any real damage. And anyway, that's not really the thing that concerns me about its height."
"Huh?" The shorter of the two girls looked at him in confusion, "What do you mean?".
"That thing is taller than you," He told Megumin bluntly, "Sure, you can still reach the top right now, but once we start adding more onto the top, you won't be able to reach the top anymore."
"O-oh. Well, once that happens, I can just get one of you two to put my pieces on the top for me. That's what I usually do."
"T-that's not fair at all!" Yunyun pointed out, "Putting them back is half of the challenge, you can't j-just make one of us do it for you."
"Fine then," She huffed in frustration, "I can just get Kazuma to pick me up then."
"Not that I really care either way, but wouldn't it just be easier to get a stool or something?" Kazuma suggested, "It'd probably be better for everyone if we can actually get a proper view of the top."
Once Megumin, having seen the merit in his suggestion, returned with a stool, allowing her to easily reach the top of the tower, a small flaw in their 'competition' suddenly appeared in Kazuma's mind.
"Hey," He said, looking between the two girls, "You're competing to try and see which of you is better at this game, right?".
They both nodded in response, curious as to what he was getting at.
"Alright," The boy crossed his arms, once again looking at the tower, "Then in that case, I'll sit out."
"It's fine Kazuma," Megumin tried to reassure him, "Just because it's a competition between me and Yunyun, it doesn't mean that you have to be left out."
"Y-yeah, I wouldn't want one of my f-friends to feel left out…".
Kazuma shook his head, "No, it's nothing like that. It's just that, with more than two people playing, this game doesn't really have a set winner and loser, just a single loser and everyone else is just kinda considered a winner. So, in the event that I also play and I end up losing, there won't be a definitive winner between you two."
Yunyun looked at him in surprise, "Ah, w-well, I didn't really think about that. That would probably be a good idea…".
He internally congratulated himself for coming up with such convincing reasoning. In reality, he just didn't want them to find out how terrible he was at Jenga.
"Hey Kazuma," Megumin gave him an inquisitive expression, "Are you sure that you aren't just doing this to avoid embarrassing yourself when you lose?".
"Sh-shut up! Of course not!".
Despite the fact that Megumin knew she'd clearly hit the nail straight on the head, she decided that she wouldn't push it any further, he did still make a good point as for why he shouldn't compete, after all. Following a short discussion, they eventually decided that the two girls would play three rounds, in a best for three, with the obvious rule that whoever knocked down the tower would be the loser, and the other player crowned as the winner.
Even though Kazuma didn't really go into it with high hopes, he found himself being surprised by just how good the two girls were, playing with incredible precision. He didn't think he'd ever seen Megumin as focused as precise as she was when she would delicately remove one of the blocks and hop up onto the stool to place it up top. Yunyun, on the other hand, only looked more and more nervous as the tower increased in height and decreased in stability. Yet, despite that, she still managed to hold her own, even against her nerves.
After a tense fifteen minutes, Megumin came out victorious in the first round, with Yunyun accidentally knocking down the upper part of the tower when she tried to remove a particularly unstable piece. The second round lasted even longer, until the tower slowly began to fall backwards after Megumin placed down one of her blocks on the topmost part.
With the tower rebuilt for a second time, and with the score at an even one to one, the two girls began to psyche themselves up.
"Kazuma, Kazuma," Megumin leaned in close to him.
"I'm still Kazuma."
"You know that I'm gonna win, don't you? You are rooting for me, right?" She questioned him, a determined glint in her eyes.
"Hmm," Kazuma considered her questions, "Well, from what I've seen so far, I'd say that you probably have a slight skill advantage over Yunyun, and she's also held back a bit by how shaky her hands get due to anxiety. But on the other hand, her height advantage really comes in handy during the late game, even with the stool."
"And what about my other question?" She asked expectantly.
"Sorry," The brown haired boy smirked at her, "As a referee, I have to be an unbiased third party. Therefore, I can't root for either of you."
The disappointed look on her face made it clear that she wasn't happy with his answer.
"L-listen up, Megumin," Yunyun dramatically pointed at her, "I may have let you win the first round, but I'll definitely beat you in this final round, no matter what!".
"...I'm honestly surprised by how outgoing she can be at times, considering how timid she usually is," Kazuma commented to Megumin as they stared at her. It was soon made obvious that the shy girl had simply just acted out without thinking, if the way her face instantly reddened before she hid it in her hands was any indication.
Once they'd both reassured the now very jittery girl that she didn't have to be so embarrassed about her behaviour a couple of times each, the final round was officially underway. It seemed as though Yunyun's drive to win had finally overtaken her usual meekness, as she carefully moved the blocks from place to place with a deeply focused look on her face.
After almost twenty tense minutes, it had officially become their longest round yet, and - by extension - their tallest tower too. It had gotten so tall at one point that Megumin could no longer reach the top, even with the assistance of the stool, leading to Kazuma having to pick her up while standing on the stool himself to give her the proper height.
"Umm, i-is it really necessary for you to hold me like this, Kazuma?" Megumin asked as she felt his arms wrap tightly around her midriff.
"Absolutely, there's no way I'd be able to keep my balance otherwise," He half-lied. Sure, it wasn't completely necessary for him to hold her so closely, but it really did help with keeping his balance, and a couple other things too.
As the tower was getting closer and closer to the ceiling, Kazuma couldn't help but wonder how many more rounds it would take until he'd have to start picking Yunyun up as well. His question would be answered a minute or so later, after the shy teen finally got done removing one of the lower blocks after a tense few seconds, she climbed up onto the stool and quickly ran into a problem when she tried to reach the top of the tower.
"U-umm, Kazuma," She kept her eyes locked onto the floor as she got down from the stool, "Would you m-mind… g-giving me a boost, t-too? I can't reach the top anymore."
"H-hold on!" Megumin practically skidded to a halt in between the two, "You can still easily reach the top, you don't need him to pick you up."
"I obviously can't, you literally just watched me try to!" The taller girl tried to explain, her face reddening. Though Kazuma couldn't tell if it was out of indignation or embarrassment, maybe even both, "He's been helping you for the past few minutes now, so why is it a problem if he helps me now?".
The shorter of the two turned her head away from Yunyun, trying to come up with an excuse, "I've got it! Why don't you just get another stool and put it on top of that one!".
"Th-that's so unsafe! Why are you being so unreasonable!? Are you really that scared of losing?".
"Unreasonable? Scared?" Megumin grabbed the collar of Yunyun's sweater and shook her back and forth, just as the other girl had done to her earlier, "Maybe if you weren't so rude, you'd have more friends!".
"Oi," Kazuma clicked his tongue in frustration, not noticing how close the girls were to the tower, "Cut it out, you t- Oh, shit."
"Oww…" Megumin whined as pained tears rolled down her cheeks, "Id hurds, Kashuma."
"Oi, quit using my tracksuit as a tissue, you're getting it all wet," Kazuma scowled at her as he held an ice pack up to the side of her head, "Just get off of me already, it can't hurt that much."
The girl only tightened her grip on him in response.
"W-well, actually, Megumin has a fairly low tolerance for p-pain, so getting hit in the head by all of those wooden blocks was probably fairly painful for her…" Yunyun suggested from her position on the other end of the couch.
"No offence," Kazuma turned to her with an impassive expression, "But it is pretty creepy that you know something like that."
"I-i-it's not creepy, I promise!" She panicked, frantically waving her arms around, "It's just that, whenever Megumin comes to gym class, she usually ends up i-injuring herself or getting hit by something in some way. She always ends up in the nurse's office and then she doesn't attend gym for at least a month a-afterwards."
Kazuma couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Hey! W-why would you tell him that!?" Megumin snapped her head up to glare at Yunyun, and then Kazuma shortly after, "And, you, stop laughing!".
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're in a lot of pain, so I'll stop making fun of you," He comforted her dismissively, moving the ice pack up to a small bump on the back of her head "Still, though, it was seriously unlucky that the entire tower fell on you while me and Yunyun only took minimal damage. Or lucky, I guess, depending on how you look at it."
"Nope, it was definitely unlucky," The girl groaned as she rested her head against his chest, causing him to freeze up.
Kazuma couldn't help but blush as he looked down at their position together. They were sitting on the left side of the couch, Yunyun sitting on the other end, with Megumin hugging herself against his torso as he gently pressed the ice pack up to the back of her head, occasionally moving it to the other bumps on the sides or top at her insistence. He didn't even know if she was doing it intentionally.
"O-oi, Megumin, surely you feel better now," Kazuma shook her shoulders a little with his free hand, "Can you get off of me now?".
It's not like he didn't enjoy having Megumin cuddling against him, because he most certainly did. But, even so, his growing embarrassment over the situation was practically screaming at him to get her off of him.
"Y-y-y-y-you.. y-you're… you two…" Yunyun stuttered out in a panic, seemingly having only just realised the position that the other two were in, "I didn't know that you were so close…".
"Ah, n-no! It's not what you think!" The girl jolted her head up from Kazuma's chest, "It's just that my head hurts and Kazuma had the ice pack and I just..".
She trailed off as she looked upon Yunyun's blank, and more than a little dumbfounded, expression.
"...Never mind."
"How long are you gonna keep using that ice pack for? Hasn't the ice already melted by now?" Kazuma asked her as they stood by the front door.
After the competition had ended in a draw, with none of the three having seen which of the girls was responsible for toppling the tower, Yunyun had stayed for a little while longer, before thanking them for 'such a fun day' and excusing herself. They had just finished waving her off when the boy looked back to watch Megumin press what he could only assume was no more than a bag of water by now against her head.
"I don't think you understand how painful it was," She frowned at him, "You should try to be nicer to me while I'm suffering like this."
"Mhm, sure," He looked wholly unconvinced pointing a finger towards her,, "You're so brave for… doing whatever it is that you're doing."
"Come on! Is it really so hard for you to comfort someone?".
"Not really," Kazuma shrugged with a smile, "I think you're forgetting who got you that ice pack."
Megumin whined in faux annoyance, before holding out the ice pack in front of Kazuma, "Well, you were right earlier, most of the ice has melted by now. So how about you get me a new one and take care of me while I'm suffering? Please?".
He initially intended to completely refuse her offer, but he couldn't deny that he was curious as to what 'taking care of her' would entail.
"Fine, but only until we have to go pick up Komekko."
"Deal."
To Kazuma's disappointment, 'taking care of her' didn't involve anything even remotely perverted. Instead, he spent the next hour practically acting as her butler while she sat down on the couch watching anime. After another twenty minutes of begrudgingly bringing her snacks or holding her ice pack up against her head when 'her hands got tired', she eventually took pity on him and let him join her on the couch, something he was more than happy to do without any hesitation.
After only a few minutes of proper relaxation, though, Megumin had quickly dragged him out of the house to go pick up her little sister.
"Hey, Kazuma," Megumin tapped him on the shoulder to pull him from his thoughts.
"Kazuma here."
"Our stop is coming up now," She told him as she pointed out of the bus's window, "By the way, you've had a strange expression on your face for the past few minutes. What were you thinking about just now?".
"Nothing really," He replied as he felt the bus slowing down, "But I was just thinking that I'm probably gonna spend tomorrow looking around for nearby apartments, like, in the local neighbourhood, y'know? I would just check online, but finding anything in a place like this online is harder than you think. Most people here seem to not bother with online listings, unfortunately,". He made sure to emphasise that last word as much as possible.
Megumin nodded as the two got up from their seats, slowly making their way to the front of the bus, "You want me to come with? It might be pretty boring all by yourself."
They paid their bus fare and made their way onto the pavement before Kazuma responded, "I don't see why not. Plus, you'd probably be bored too if I left you to stay in the house by yourself all day. Unless you plan on becoming a shut-in too."
"Don't make it sound like I have nothing else to do besides spending time with you!" The dark haired girl scolded him, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction, "I have plenty of other things I could be doing instead of wasting my time on a dumb pervert like you, thank you very much."
"And yet, you still choose to spend time with me anyway," He crossed his arms with a smug smile, peering over at her from the corner of his eyes.
"Obviously," She grumbled, returning his smile with a small one of her own, "You're my best friend, why wouldn't I want to spend time with you?".
Kazuma discreetly turned his head away as his cheeks began to heat up from her words, the warm feeling in his chest was undeniable, "Yeah, I guess I e-enjoy spending time with you too, Megumin."
The two beet-red teens both decided to change the conversation after that, spending the rest of the small walk over to Komekko's kindergarten making jokes at the expense of the kind-hearted yet undeniably very strange girl who had visited them earlier.
"Big sis!" The tiny girl gleefully shouted as Megumin and Kazuma made their way inside of the building, stopping in her tracks as loudly gasping when she saw the person behind her sister, "Big brother!".
"Ah, Komekko!" Megumin was clearly embarrassed as the small girl ran towards her and hugged her leg, "It's okay to do it at home, but you really shouldn't call him b-".
"Big brother?" Came the sound of a mature female voice, "I don't remember either of you ever having a big brother."
Wandering up to them from behind Komekko, a woman who looked to be around her thirties with short red hair and a large chest appeared, notably catching Kazuma's attention.
"I told you yesterday, miss Wolbach! Weren't you listening?" Komekko puffed out her cheeks at her, "Big brother lives with us now and he makes me lots of super yummy food."
"Oh, I see," The woman awkwardly laughed at the little girl's antics, "But I thought that he was called 'big sister's boyfriend' and not 'big brother'."
"I-I told you not to call him that, Komekko!" Megumin buried her head in her hands as her embarrassment began to rapidly bubble up.
"Yo," Kazuma casually waved at the woman in greeting, "Wolbach, right?".
Wolbach sent him a kind smile, "Yes, I am, I assume you've heard about me from these two. I'm sorry but would you mind telling me your name?".
"Yeah, sure," He nodded, "Names Kazuma Satou, I'm one of Megumin's friends."
The woman's eyes widened slightly as she heard his name, smiling softly at the girl beside him, who was now peeking through her fingertips, "Kazuma, is it? I've heard your name a few times before, Megumin has told me a lot about you."
The aforementioned girl quickly stopped peeking through her hands to turn to her former carer, "H-hey, Wo-".
"Mhm," Komekko happily nodded as she unlatched herself from her sister's leg, moving to instead tug on Kazuma's sleeve, "Big sis really likes big brother, she even talks to me about him sometimes!".
"S-seriously, don't say it like that!" Megumin yelped, too distracted to bother hiding the blush that was searing her entire face, "You'll give Kazuma the wrong impression, you two!".
Wolbach only laughed knowingly at the girl while Komekko looked up at Kazuma, who had subtly averted his gaze, really not sure how to react.
Feeling a familiar pair of eyes on him, Kazuma crouched down so that he was eye-level with the small girl, hoping to hurriedly change the atmosphere of their conversation, "Hey, Komekko, what do you want big brother to make you for dinner when we get back home?".
The rest of the evening was a rather uneventful, yet still enjoyable, one, with Kazuma cooking a big meal for the three of them. He made sure to have a decent amount of leftovers, as he was planning to save some for him and Megumin to eat while they went out the next day. After an hour or so of playing a board game with Komekko, her big sister eventually took her to bed and the two teenagers spent the rest of the evening slowly making their way through some more of Kazuma's school work until they both decided to hit the hay for the night.
"So, is there anywhere specific that we're looking at, or are we just, y'know, looking?" Megumin asked as they made their way off of the return bus, having just dropped Komekko off at kindergarten for the day.
"Just looking around to see what there is, I guess," Kazuma responded, slinging his bag over his shoulder, "We may as well just pick a direction and start walking, I'll just consult maps as we're going. I really have no idea where to start with something like this."
"Having a smartphone sure does make everything a lot easier, huh…" The girl said with a slightly discouraged tone, before perking up again as she noticed something about the boy, "Hey, Kazuma, what're you bringing your bag for?".
"Oh, right," He raised his shoulder a little for emphasis, "I didn't know how long we'd be out for, so I packed lunch."
"Huh? For, like, a picnic?".
A small smile graced his lips as he observed the excited glimmer in her eyes, "Well, I didn't bring a blanket or anything, and it's just leftovers from last night, but I guess you could call it a picnic if you wanted to."
Megumin made a small noise of reserved glee as they made their way down the usual route back to Megumin's house, "And so I will. It's been a while since I last had a picnic."
"Fine by me," Kazuma told her as he stopped walking once they reached a certain point, grabbing onto her jacket's sleeve to halt her once he noticed that she was still walking, "We're not going back to your house, remember?".
"O-oh, yeah," She laughed it off, a little embarrassed, "Sorry, force of habit."
"All good," He replied nonchalantly, smirking as he looked in a certain direction, "Hey, Megumin, follow me. I wanna show you something."
"I know that you said that the whole thing was burnt down, but I thought that you were exaggerating at least a little bit," Megumin stared at the sight in front of them with a commiserative expression.
"If it wasn't such a huge inconvenience on my life, I'd probably say that's a pretty cool looking sight to behold," Kazuma joked as he took a few steps towards the pile of scorched debris, "Still, though, it is a bit weird that none of this has been cleared up yet. It's almost been five whole days since the fire…".
"Hmm," The girl pondered his question while she crouched down in front of a charred plank of wood, somehow still mostly intact, "It's possible that it's taken so long due to the sheer amount of rubble and debris that would have to be moved, right? Maybe they're just waiting on, like, a bulldozer or something."
He honestly wasn't entirely convinced by her suggestion, especially the part about bulldozers, but he did admit that it was a fairly reasonable explanation. "That could be it," The boy pushed aside a strand of hair that had blown into his eye, "Either that or this just wasn't a high priority place. Though I do wonder what is gonna happen to this place now."
Megumin turned to him and tilted her head in confusion, "Huh? Are they not planning on rebuilding?".
"I don't actually know," Kazuma replied honestly, "Darkness was the one who handled our situation with the landlord - err, former landlord, I guess - of this place. I haven't actually had any contact with him since."
"Weird," The girl simply commented as she climbed up onto a rather large piece of debris, "But I guess it doesn't really matter either way. Even if they are planning to rebuild, it'll still take a couple of months at the bare minimum."
He silently nodded in agreement as he watched the girl stand atop the rubble, "Oi, get down from there already, everything here is super unstable. For obvious reasons."
Megumin playfully stuck her tongue out in response, "Aww, c'mon! This place is so cool-looking, though. At least let me have a little bit of fun."
"Whatever," Kazuma rolled his eyes at the girl, already having given up as he began to pull himself up next to her, not needing to climb up due to his taller frame.
The short haired girl held out her hand to help him up, with her companion gladly taking hold of her hand as he pulled himself up to stand next to her. They both blushed as they felt the hand to hand contact persist even after Kazuma was on his feet.
The two remained there for a few more minutes, both mentally justifying the hand holding as a precaution to make sure they wouldn't fall, before Kazuma spoke again, albeit still slightly tense.
"We should probably get going now," He began, now looking over in the direction of the road leading back to the bus stop, "How about we look over past the bus stop first? Then if we have more time after, we can look for places past your house."
"Sounds like a plan."
"I was honestly hoping that it would be a lot easier than this," Kazuma complained as they made their way out of the small apartment block - the fourth place they'd found that day - pulling out his phone to type out some notes for later.
"What exactly were you expecting then?" Megumin asked, giving a scrutinising look, "You didn't seriously expect this to be easy, did you?".
"Not really, I know how stuff like house hunting usually goes," The boy replied as they continued down the sidewalk, "But I'll admit that I was kinda hoping that I'd just get lucky and find some perfect place right off the bat. I am lucky, after all."
She groaned exaggeratedly at his admission, "I can't believe you. You can't just use the excuse of 'I'm lucky' to try to get out of every single situation."
From the look on her face, she clearly had more that she wanted to say to him, but she was quickly shut up as a loud growling sound came from her stomach, signalling her hunger. She blushed in embarrassment as Kazuma stared at her incredulously, laughing a little at her expense.
"Well, from the sound of it, it seems like we both wanna take a little break from this," The emerald eyed boy commented, his eyes lighting up as he recognised a familiar location, "Oi, Megumin, you wanna have that picnic now?".
"Yeah," She looked over at his bag, "Where are we gonna eat it though?".
Kazuma simply just pointed his thumb in the direction he'd previously been looking, "I thought you would've recognised where we were already."
As Megumin followed where he was pointing, her eyes soon fell upon a small abandoned children's playground off in the distance. Actually, neither of them were actually sure if it was abandoned or not. It was still in pretty good condition, but they'd never seen a single other person there in all the times they'd walked past it or hung out there.
"Oh, right. I forgot that we'd eventually see this place if we kept going this direction."
"It's a pretty decent place to rest for a little," The boy assessed as they drew closer to the playground, "We can just sit on one of the benches or something."
Megumin smiled as they made their way into the playground, wandering around for a little bit before she plopped herself down on one of the swings, absentmindedly swinging herself back and forth, while Kazuma placed his bag down on the nearby bench. She watched with anticipation as he plucked out two tupperware containers and two pairs of chopsticks and placed them down on the wooden seating.
"Here," He said as he held out a pair of chopsticks and one of the containers for the girl, "It might've gone a little cold by now, but it should still taste fine."
"Thanks, I'm sure it'll still taste great," Megumin smiled brightly at him, her grin only growing wider as she took note of the embarrassed frown that tugged at his lips before he turned away to sit down at the bench, a few metres away from the swing set, "You're not gonna join me over here?".
"Those swings really don't look big enough to comfortably hold me," Kazuma commented as he squinted at the swing next to her, "You should be fine, since you're pretty small and light, but I really don't feel confident about sitting on one of those."
"Even though you didn't mean that as an insult, I can't help but be upset about being described as 'small and light'," Megumin frowned as she spoke in between bites.
"Trust me," He exhaled as he opened up his tub, "If I wanted to insult you, I would've said something much worse."
"Oh, is that so?" The short girl coldly asked, her swinging slowing down, "And what exactly would you have said? It's okay, you can tell me."
Kazuma gulped, Megumin's deadly tone and understanding words not matching at all, "I think I'll stop talking now… for my own safety."
Despite the girl's threatening tone, their lunch was a peaceful one. As they ate, Kazuma pulled out his phone to review the places they'd already checked out and compared the notes he'd made about each one.
"You see, this one isn't too bad," He explained to Megumin, as she swung back and forth between mouthfuls of food, "But it's way too expensive for me. If it was more than a single room, I might've been able to justify it, but as it is, it's just not worth it."
She nodded in agreement before swallowing her food, "What about the first one we looked at? That one was pretty cheap. Sure, it doesn't exactly look the best, but you said that you weren't too picky."
"Megumin," Kazuma looked at her blankly, "There was mould everywhere. This is not a matter of being 'picky', the only thing that could survive in that place is a fungus."
"I… can't really argue with you there," The middle schooler hopped off of the swing to place her now empty tupperware container and chopsticks into Kazuma's bag, sitting down on the bench next to him, "So I'm assuming that you still wanna keep looking around here a bit more today?".
"If that's okay with you, then yeah."
She closed her eyes as she felt a soft breeze lightly tickle her bangs, "Yeah, that's fine by me."
"Nothing, huh?" Megumin asked as she leaned over to look at the notes on Kazuma's phone, "So does this mean that we're gonna have to keep looking tomorrow, too?".
"No, not tomorrow. I was planning on taking another lunch shift tomorrow," The older boy explained as he scrolled back to the top of his notes app, "We could go again on Friday though."
After a few more hours of wandering from potential lodging to potential lodging, Kazuma and Megumin had eventually decided to call it a day. Mostly because they were just bored of it, but also because they had just under an hour until Kazuma's shift started and Megumin would need to pick Komekko up from kindergarten.
Once they'd taken a quick detour back to Megumin's house, so that Kazuma could take a shower and grab his work clothes, the two friends had leisurely made their way to the bus stop, where they boarded the usual 4:30 bus.
The girl shook her head, her outright refusal surprising him slightly, "Nope. We have other plans on Friday… hopefully?".
"What's 'hopefully' supposed to mean?" He sent her an incredulous look before switching to a different question, "And whaddya mean, 'we'? When did I agree to whatever this is?".
Megumin softly giggled at the boy's exaggerated reaction, "You agreed to it on Monday, don't you remember? I said that we should take Komekko into Axel."
"Oh, so that's what you're talking about," Kazuma rested his elbow against the window and relaxed his cheek into his fist, "Well you never said an exact day, so you can't really be surprised that I didn't understand what you were talking about."
"I guess you're right, but Friday does work for you, right?" She asked, unintentionally getting up in his personal space, "I know you want to find somewhere to live sooner rather than later, I completely get that, but could we maybe put that off until the weekend? Please?".
"Alright," He plainly answered as he used his free hand to run his fingers through his hair, "I guess I don't mind waiting a day or so longer. But still, what did you mean by 'hopefully', anyway?".
"I still have to let Wolbach know that Komekko won't be going to kindergarten on Friday, that's all," Megumin explained, leaning back to rest against her seat, "I mean, there's no reason she wouldn't be okay with it, but, y'know, I don't wanna say for certain until I've sorted it out with her. I'll make sure to do that when I pick up Komekko now actually."
"Sounds good," Kazuma let out a relaxed breath, the two quickly falling into a comfortable silence, signalling the natural end of that specific conversation. The quiet didn't really bother him at all. He knew that before long Megumin would bring up a new topic, or he'd think of a question to ask her. Until then, he simply just stared out the window, enjoying the scenery.
Just as he had predicted, after a minute or so, Megumin spoke up once again. "Kazuma, Kazuma."
"I'm still Kazuma."
"You said that you were taking the lunch shift tomorrow, didn't you?" She questioned as Kazuma pulled his attention away from the window and towards the girl.
He steadily nodded his head "Mhm, what about it?".
"Nothing really," The red eyed girl replied, slightly dismissively, "I was just thinking about something."
Kazuma nudged her with his elbow, now somewhat intrigued, "Come on, you can't just bring something up and then not talk about it. What were you thinking about?".
"It really is nothing, I was just thinking about maybe seeing some of my other friends while you're gone tomorrow," Megumin smiled softly as she told him about her idea, "If not, then I'll just get bored on my own, so I may as well see if any of them are available."
"Huh, that's not a bad idea," He said, mostly to himself.
"Great work as always, helper. Get home safe!" Chris called out as she made her way through the station's toll gates.
"Will do, chief!" Kazuma yelled back as the older girl began to disappear from view, leaving him alone in the train station's entrance area.
As he wandered out of the station, in the direction of the usual bus stop to catch his ride home, he fished his phone out of his pocket and looked through his contacts. After a few seconds of searching, he eventually located Darkness in his message list, moving his free hand in front of his mouth to blow a gust of warm air onto his palm before he started typing.
He didn't really go into that much detail with his messages, just telling her that he'd spent the day looking for potential places to stay, though he still hadn't found anywhere that really fit his self-set criteria yet. It's not that he didn't want to tell her anything or was being purposely vague, it was just that they'd agreed to call about it instead, although Kazuma saw fit to wait until he was on the bus to call her. Trying to do a video call as he was walking to the bus stop at half nine in the evening wasn't his personal idea of 'fun'.
Still, he eventually made his way to the bus stop, with Darkness texting him to say that she had already formed a solution with her father when it came to her housing. Something that Kazuma was very much relieved to hear about. It meant less work for him, after all.
"Yo," Kazuma greeted Darkness once she picked up the video call, with the boy now comfortably resting against the backmost seats of the almost empty bus.
"Hi Kazuma!" A voice that was obviously not Darkness screeched through his phone's speaker as a familiar head of blue hair appeared on the cracked screen.
He stared blankly at his phone screen, giving a single nod to the girl "...Aqua."
"Kazuma, Kazuma, look at my new clothes!" Aqua stood back slightly to show that she was, in fact, wearing something besides her usual pink shorts, blue crop top and dark blue hoodie, now donning a low cut pink t-shirt, a short blue jacket, a dark blue skirt and white thigh high socks. For once, the girl looked like a somewhat normal functioning member of society, though Kazuma unfortunately knew better, "Lalatina took me out to buy these earlier!".
"Aqua!" The other girl interjected, clearly distressed by the casual use of her real name, "I told you not to call me that! Call me Darkness, remember?"
"Oh, right… You did say that. Silly me!".
The boy rolled his eyes at the girl's antics. "Darkness, you shouldn't have done all this for Aqua," He visibly cringed as he watched Aqua spill a small amount of what he could only assume was wine onto her brand new shirt, his voice turning monotone, "Seriously, you shouldn't have."
"It is fine, really, Kazuma," She assured him, "It truly was fun to go out shopping with a friend again. It isn't something I get the chance to do very often."
"Right," Kazuma awkwardly replied, feeling a small tinge of pity for the older girl, "So, anyway, anything new to tell me?".
"Yeah!" Aqua once again interjected, "Kazuma, Kazuma! You won't believe this, Darkness' family have maids! Real ones!".
"Oh?" He was suddenly intrigued by what she had to say, "Tell me more."
"Th-th-they aren't maids!" Darkness hurriedly said, embarrassed, "They're more like housekeepers, calling them m-maids would give the wr-wrong impression."
"Huh?" The blue haired girl had an inquisitive look on her face, "But your dad calls them maids, and they didn't have any issues when I called them maids."
"Get that creepy look off of your face."
"Urk! C-c-c-creepy!?" Darkness panted.
"Down girl," Kazuma blankly commanded, "We will talk more about those maids later, okay Aqua?".
"Got it!".
Their usual three way banter continued for a while longer, something that, while he'd never admit it, especially not to Aqua, he really did enjoy. Sure, the two girls certainly did have their… flaws - Aqua had far too many of those actually - but he did truly see them as his friends, even though he'd only known Darkness for a single month.
According to what they told him, they'd actually had a very relaxed vacation over at Darkness' home. Surprisingly, to Kazuma at least, Aqua seemed as though she had actually been on her best behaviour during her stay, even managing to impress the other girl's father by performing some of her 'party tricks', as she called them. Beyond that, she'd even left the house and gone outside with the blonde. Sure, she'd only actually gone out twice, and only after getting the promise of free food or clothes, but progress was still progress. Maybe the guilt about the fire really was affecting her, in some way at least.
Those feelings of pride towards the girl were quickly squashed once Darkness mentioned that the whiny shut-in had drunkenly stumbled into a vase the night before, smashing it. Luckily, the 'harmless accident' had been mostly brushed off, though apparently the 'housekeepers' had been keeping a closer eye on her than before.
Of course, eventually, the conversation switched over to the main purpose behind the call, with Kazuma giving a brief summary of his first day of house hunting, or, more accurately, apartment hunting.
"Hey Darkness?" He questioned, "You said that you talked things over with your dad, right? What's the situation with that now?".
"Oh, yes. I almost forgot to tell you," The rich girl gave him an brief apologetic smile before talking again, in a tone much more suited to an aristocrat's daughter than her usual one, "My father has already paid for my stay at a different apartment building, one that is somewhat closer to my college."
"Hmm, I see," Kazuma pondered her words, "That's good news, at least. Now I just gotta find somewhere for me and Aqua to live…".
"Mmm?" The blue eyed NEET perked up at his words, quickly gulping down the large swig of wine that she'd just taken, "Hey, Kashuma, I was thinking-".
"That's new," He interjected.
"Shut up!" She berated him, swaying slightly, probably a little tipsy by this point, "As I was saying, this place is a lot nicer than your old dingy apartment, so I'd rather just stay here from now on instead. This seems like a much more suitable home for someone like me."
"Oi! You spoiled brat!".
Kazuma visibly deflated, 'Never mind… Aqua will never stop being Aqua.'
Megumin rolled over onto her other side, hoping to find a more comfortable position in her futon. She'd been restlessly moving around for the past thirty minutes, maybe even forty by this point. It had been a while since she and Kazuma had decided to retire for the night, and it had been even longer since he'd returned home, a tired yet warm smile on his face. One that she found herself still envisioning, even long after it had left his features.
She couldn't get to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about him.
She internally groaned and buried her face into her pillow, desperately trying to quell her raging thoughts and, once again, failing. Almost every night had been like this in some shape or form ever since Kazuma had started living with her, though tonight was the worst one yet. The only notable exceptions being when she was holding his hand on their first night and when she'd fallen asleep on the couch waiting for him to come home. The time he'd, as far as she could tell, carried her to her room and tucked her into her bed.
And with those new mental images flooding her head, she felt more awake than ever.
Megumin wasn't irritated at Kazuma because of this, of course she wasn't. It's not like any of this was his fault. It was her fault for being so taken by him, for loving him so much. She'd take all the restless nights in the world if it meant she could keep spending these wonderful days with him.
Somehow, five whole days had already passed. Because of him… because of him just being there, everything had felt so much more… fun.
It was getting harder and harder for Megumin to hold herself back. As of recent, it felt like it was taking more and more of her willpower to stop herself from holding his hand when they walked together. Or from hugging him whenever he said something that made her happy - which was more often than she'd like to admit - or, the hardest part, stopping herself from kissing him whenever their faces got too close together.
She rolled over onto her back, staring blankly at the ceiling of her shared bedroom. She felt so out of her element in this whole 'romance' thing.
Turning her head slightly, she could barely make out the figure of her little sister, tightly clutching the red dragon that she and Kazuma had won in Axel a few days prior. Megumin smiled warmly; she was pretty excited to take Komekko out into Axel with Kazuma on Friday, she'd already got Wolbach's approval to take her out of kindergarten too. On the other side of her sister, she noticed Chomusuke's small form resting against the pillow. She had been sleeping next to Megumin's bed previously, but quickly switched sides when she began tossing and turning once more. Not that she could really fault the traitorous feline all that much.
Megumin softly smiled as she sleepily raised her hand upwards, her palm facing the ceiling. As she closed her eyes, hoping to finally reach some form of sleep, she faintly mumbled to herself.
"I love you, Kazuma…".