- Chapter 11: A Working Day For This Idle Layabout! -

"Are you gonna get off now?" Kazuma let out a puff of air as he lugged his newly acquired cargo through the surprisingly dense forest.

"Why?" Megumin simply questioned, tapping the side of the older teen's head for effect, "You were the one who offered to carry me in the first place, weren't you?".

"Yeah, I was," He flatly replied as he scanned the tree line in front of them, "And I distinctly remember that the offer was only to piggyback you while we were crossing through that stream earlier, nothing more."

Kazuma scowled at nothing in particular as he briefly stopped, waiting for Megumin to point him the right direction again, an action which she quickly followed through on as she thrust one of her arms out in the direction of a sizable gap in the treeline. If it wasn't for her, he was seriously starting to doubt if he'd ever be able to make it out on his own.

From her resting place on the boy's back, Megumin flashed a smug smile and continued from their previous conversation, "Does it really matter, though? I'm pretty sure that if you actually had a problem with carrying me, you'd have just dropped me by now."

"Do you want me to drop you? Because I'm really considering it," The brunette suddenly released his grip on her legs, smirking as he heard a small surprised yelp and felt the girl's grip increase in intensity. He made sure to grab back onto her legs again before she could unintentionally start strangling him. "See? You should remember who's in control he- Aaugh! Stop, ow, stop twisting my ear, please!".

"Y-you jerk, I could've actually falle- Ah, ah, Kazuma, your nails are digging into my skin!" Megumin whined as Kazuma retaliated by tightening his grip on her legs, "Please let g- Ahhh, thank you."

"I wasn't actually gonna drop you, obviously," Kazuma felt the twisting of his ear gradually reduce to the girl on his back painlessly squeezing it between her fingers in return, "But you're getting down as soon as we're out of this forest, okay?".

"Fine by me," She responded, pointing over Kazuma's shoulder to guide him in the correct direction, "Go through here, the way you were about to head in is just a longer way around."

The green eyed teen's lips curved into a relieved smile, "It's a good thing that you still remembered the way back, otherwise we actually might've gotten lost here. Seriously, I don't remember this place being this… big."

"Mhm. It is a good thing, isn't it?" Megumin snarkily commented, allowing her arms to lazily drape over his shoulders, trusting that he wouldn't pretend to drop her again, "But, I guess I can forgive you for almost getting us completely lost, just this once. Only… only because you went through all the trouble of trying to t-take me here in the first place…".

Kazuma found himself swelling with pride at that. Still, though, there was something else that he was a little bit curious about.

"...Oi, Megumin," He felt her head come to rest on his shoulder, just a little bit too close to his own face, "You mind getting my phone out for me? It's in the left side pocket of my jacket."

"Oh, sure," Came the dark haired girl's response, her right arm getting a more secure hold on the boy as her left hand freely fished around for his jacket pocket, "What do you need it for?".

"To check what time it is right now," Kazuma explained, feeling Megumin's hand reach into his pocket and pull out his phone less than a second later, "I wanna know how much time we have before we have to go pick Komekko up."

"It is…" She brought the phone up to her face and turned it on, displaying the home screen, "...Three fifty-seven."

"W-wait, what?" Kazuma eyebrows raised about as high as they could go, the boy almost stumbling over a small exposed root in his stupor, "You're messing with me, right? I swear it was only like two fifty last time I checked."

"Nope, I'm serious. Look," Megumin waved her boyfriend's face directly in front of his face, completely obscuring his vision of the path in front of him, but clearly displaying the current time to him, "Why? Was there - no, Kazuma, it's those trees - was there something else you wanted to do after this?".

"Huh? No, not at all. I'm completely done for the day," His almost instant response, while expected, was still a little disappointing for Megumin. Though, maybe she was being a little bit greedy by expecting even more from him. He made sure to check with her that he was now heading in the correct direction before resuming, "It just means that we'll, unfortunately, have to wait around for a little bit before we can pick her up, right?".

She peered at his face from over his shoulder, curious, "I supposed, yeah, but is there a problem with that? It won't be for that long, you know."

"...No," He slumped his shoulders regardless, "I guess it's fine."

"Couldn't we have just picked her up a little earlier? Or waited inside from the very start, at least?" Kazuma complained as the two teenagers made their way into the front entrance of the building, his posture slumped, "No matter how you look at it, creepily hanging around outside a kindergarten for over twenty minutes is definitely a bad look."

"Don't worry, you're completely fine," Megumin giggled, "You didn't do anything creepy, you were pretty much just on your phone the entire time, anyway."

"I wasn't referring to myself, thank you," He creased his brow accusingly, "I was talking about the creepy girl who kept attempting to peek into the windows."

"M-me?" The 'creepy girl' jumped back before sending him a look of exaggerated indignation, though it came out more like a childish pout, "I was just trying to check up on my little sister. I'm a-allowed to do that!".

Kazuma leaned back against one of the walls, smirking, "Oh? So what exactly is there to 'check up on', then?".

"Well, if you must know," She began, apparently having an actual answer, "Miss Wolbach recently mentioned that Komekko has been having problems with some of the other kids here."

"What, has she been going around and stealing their food when they weren't looking or something?" He joked, letting out a small snort, only for the girl in front of him to look away in embarrassment, "Pfft! Wait, seriously?".

"H-hey, don't lau-".

"Biiiiiig sis! Biiiiig brother!" Before Megumin could continue, Komekko herself suddenly called out to them, dashing over towards them at full speed, with Wolbach following a few paces behind her.

"Hi, Komekko," The older sister greeted, crouching down to wrap her sister into a quick hug.

"You know, Megumin, it was pretty surprising to see someone besides you or your mom bringing Komekko to kindergarten this morning," Wolbach remarked, her gaze flicking over to Kazuma before finally getting a proper look at the girl in question, "Oh, I've never seen you this dressed up before, what's the occasion?".

"Huh, O-oh, this," Megumin glanced down at her dress, subtly wringing her hands, "I-I was just… this is…uhm, we just…".

"Mhm, I see," The older woman replied with a teasing smile, once again looking between the two teens, "So those things that your little sister has been telling me were true after all."

"K-komekko! W-what have you been telling her!?".

"I told you that I wasn't lying, Miss Wolbach!" The young girl proudly stated, hands squarely on her hips, "I can always tell when big sis is trying to do something weird!".

Kazuma, not being particularly interested in involving himself in the girls' discussion, just awkwardly patted the back of the utterly deflated Megumin. Clearly, Komekko was far more devious than Kazuma had ever given her credit for.

At the same time, he didn't miss the stare he was getting from the older woman. It wasn't an angry one, or even a disapproving one, but it definitely put him a little bit on edge. Between Megumin's parents and this woman, he was starting to get a little bit worried about what would happen to him if he ever so much as made Megumin cry.

Though it had been put on hold during the previous night, Megumin was very insistent that she had no desire to end their nightly routine, something that Kazuma had absolutely no reason to refuse. Truthfully, Kazuma himself wasn't all that tired - at least, compared to how he usually felt - even if it was already long past eleven when the ever sleep-conscious Megumin insisted that he went to bed.

By that point, Megumin had made sure to wash off her make-up, and her hair was starting to return to the slight messiness that she was so used to. Creaking open the door, she watched as Kazuma rolled over onto his back, his phone held a few inches above his face. Megumin stood still in the doorway for a few brief seconds before the boy's eyes flicked from his phone over to her, his head tilting in confusion.

"...Are you just gonna stand there all night?" He asked, his tone more curious than mocking.

Instead of responding, the crimson eyed girl swiftly scurried over to the bed and buried herself under the covers, her head and neck popping out of the sheets to stare at Kazuma, who had rolled back onto his side to face her. Before he even had the chance to say anything, he watched as Megumin reached out and once again wrapped her arms around his torso.

After a few moments of still silence, she frowned, "Kazuma."

"Yeah, I know. Hold on a second," The brunette finished typing out a message and put his phone into sleep mode, tossing it onto the bedside table and cringing to himself as he completely overshot and heard it land on the floor a short distance away with a faint thud. 'Well, it shouldn't be broken from just that.'

Kazuma quickly disregarded it and left it as a problem to deal with in the morning.

Moving onto more pressing matters - the impatient girl who was currently clinging to him - he wasted no time in setting into a familiar position, one arm snugly tucked around her waist while his other hand went up to brush through her hair. He already knew that she'd insist he do it anyway, but he was still amused by the way she smiled and closed her eyes the moment his hand made contact with her hair.

As they lay there in a pleasant silence, a thought crossed Kazuma's mind as his hand ran through her hair; a thought that had passed through his head multiple times before when he found himself this close to Megumin. It was a fairly inconsequential thought, one that usually left his head as quickly as it entered, but one that he saw in harm in asking her about.

"Hey, Megumin," Kazuma broke the moment of silence, his hand lingering at the tips of her hair, "Your hair isn't usually this long, is it? Are you trying to grow it out or something?".

True to what he was saying, her short hair was indeed longer than usual, and had been that way for around a month or so. It wasn't by much, being maybe only a few centimetres longer than the norm, but with hair the length of hers, even subtle changes in length were fairly easy to spot, especially with how up close Kazuma was to it.

"Huu," Megumin's eyelids slid open, their eyes instantly meeting. There wasn't really anywhere else for them to look, after all. "No. Not on purpose, at least," She quietly answered, bringing up one of her own hands to play with the brunette's bangs, "It's just been a little longer than usual since I had a haircut. My mom is the one who always cuts it for me, but she's been pretty busy recently so I didn't think to ask her."

'Right,' Kazuma thought to himself as he examined her hair, noticing that few areas did indeed look the slightest bit choppier than he'd expect from a proper haircut, 'I should've known that a family like hers wouldn't want to waste money on haircuts. Still though, her mom has done a pretty good job, I suppose.'

Megumin felt herself squirm as she observed the boy's impassive expression. "Uhm," She pulled him out of his thoughts, "It doesn't look weird at this length, d-does it?".

"I like it," He immediately countered, nervously clearing his throat a moment later as he realised his mistake, "I mean, like, i-it's fine, It's not weird or anything...".

She quietly laughed to herself, relieving some of her own tension, "You don't always have to get so embarrassed about complimenting me, Kazuma. Saying nice things to other people is actually a perfectly normal thing to do, y'know."

"Sh-shut up."

Megumin let out another small giggle as the older teen turned his nose up at her, a residual heat emanating off of his cheeks. In the ensuing moment of respite, she calmed her nerves enough to ask him a further question. "W-would you like it if I did?".

"Huh?" Returning his vision back to her, Kazuma creased his brows, "If you did w-what exactly?".

"...If I grew out my hair," She levelled her voice, hiding her face in the other teen's neck, "Would you like it more like that?".

He brought his lightly trembling hands up to her shoulders and moved her so that she was once again directly facing him. Kazuma squinted at the girl in front of him, trying to envision what she was suggesting. After a few seconds, his eyes returned to normal and he found himself slowly nodding his head. "Y-yeah. I think I would."

"T-then.." Megumin slowly leaned forwards and gave him a small kiss, pulling away before he could even react, "I-I-I'll… I'll try d-doing that."

"…".

'This is bad. Seriously bad.'

Kazuma didn't get to sleep until multiple hours later that night.

Arriving back home after dropping Komekko off at kindergarten was something that Megumin was very much used to by this point, she'd always do it whenever her mother wasn't home for some reason or another. In the comparatively shorter amount of times that she'd done as such with Kazuma living with her, it was a fairly rare - but not unheard of - occurrence for her announcement of arriving home to be met with complete silence.

Sure, she was a little disappointed - having him greet her when she came home always felt very… homely, to her - but it didn't really bother her at all. Most likely, it just meant that he was either in the shower or had headphones on, as had been the case once or twice before. As such, she didn't feel any particular need to go seeking him out at that exact moment. She doubted that it would be long until she saw him again; the house wasn't big enough for people to go unnoticed for long.

After a quick stop in the kitchen, Megumin soon found herself sitting in the dining room, a chipped mug of coffee on the table in front of her. Living with Kazuma over the past week and a half had certainly warmed her up to the beverage, especially with the sheer amount of it that the usually exhausted teen got through.

She was suddenly pulled from her thoughts as something flopped down onto her shoulders, taking her off guard.

"Megumiiiin" The dark haired girl quickly calmed down, instantly recognising the voice and tracksuit sleeves of Kazuma. Although, she also couldn't help but notice how completely dejected he sounded. "...Please put me out of my misery."

"Wha-? Kazuma!" Megumin swivelled her head to get a proper look at the figure slumped over the back of her chair, "Don't say things like that! Is… is something wrong?".

"Everything," Kazuma groaned, "I wanna go back to living with my parents already. Responsibilities suck."

"A-ah," Understanding washed over her face, "Is this about getting Aqua to take that job?".

"That's part of it, I guess," Megumin felt his head come to a stop on top of her own, his breath softly tickling her hair, "...I didn't realise how much stuff I'd have to do today. I only have, like, four days until she gets back and I haven't even started paying rent for that house yet."

The middle schooler pursed her lips at his words, curious, "Huh? But I thought that you'd already rented it out for the first month."

She felt him shake his head, "Nope, not officially. I did say that I'd rent it, and I do intend to, but I haven't paid for or signed anything yet. Obviously he's not gonna hand the keys over until then."

"So, is that all?" Megumin asked, taking a small sip from her mug, "I know you like to over-exaggerate a lot, but it really doesn't sound that bad to me."

"Oi, I take offence to that," He sent her a scathing look, "Trust me, if that's all that I had to do, then I'd be completely fine with it. Unfortunately, as I just found out, I somehow still need more money."

"Y-you do? Why, what for?" She questioned, furrowing her brows and frowning, "That guy seemed nice enough, but he better not be trying to scam you, Kazuma. If he is, then I'll defin-".

"He's not scamming me," Kazuma interrupted her, finally pushing himself off from the back of her chair and slumping down into the seat beside her, "I just have to pay this extra fee if I want to keep the furniture that's already there. Which, admittedly, isn't all that much, but, still."

"And how much is this extra fee?" Megumin inquired, bringing her mug up to her lips.

"Around thirteen thousand yen," He stated, "Which, for a one-time payment, isn't that bad of a deal. It'd be cheaper than buying two beds and a couch myself, so it's definitely worth it."

"That's… not the worst deal, I suppose. Is it just for the two beds and the couch?".

"As far as I know, yeah," The emerald eyed boy paused for a second, "Actually, I think I remember the beds having a nightstand, so I'm assuming that I'd get those too. All the kitchen appliances are already included in the base rent."

The shorter teen nodded in understanding. "So you've gotta come up with thirteen thousand yen from… somewhere, then?".

"That's the plan" Kazuma limply waved his wrist, "Still trying to think about the how, though."

"Are you starting to see the problem with leaving things as late as possible yet? And that really is everything, right, Kazuma?" Megumin lightly scolded him, shaking her head disapprovingly.

He sheepishly looked away, craning his neck as far away from her as it could go, "...I, uhm, I also sorta, y'know, I pretty much completely forgot about my homework for the past few days, so… I'm a little bit behind on that."

"Y-you…! Do you really need me to watch over your shoulder all the time just to make sure that you're actually doing work?" Eyebrows creased, Megumin irritably poked at the older teen's forehead with her forefinger, "Seriously, how have you managed to make it through your first year of high school like this…?".

Kazuma hung his head in shame, "Sorry."

The crimson eyed girl rubbed at her temples, before taking another drink from her mug, "So how much have you already got done today while I was out?".

"...Nothing."

"Huh?" Megumin raised her brows incredulously, "I can't believe you… You got this depressed from just thinking about it?".

"I-I have a hard life, okay!?" Kazuma defiantly retorted.

"Come on, if you don't start right now, you'll only make this worse for yourself. I'm not giving you a choice in this," Reaching out towards him, she motioned for him to get out his phone, "How about you start by calling Aqua? That shouldn't be too bad… hopefully."

"What, are you my manager now or something?" He dismissively waved his free hand as he fished out his phone from his pocket, "But, I guess I won't complain if you really want to help."

"You'd be practically hopeless if I left you to do this all on your own," Megumin wistfully noted, letting out a light snicker, "So… I'll try to do whatever I can to help you out for today, okay?".

A strange look came over Kazuma's face, causing Megumin to shrink back a little bit, regretting her wording.

"Oho, whatever you can?".

"Good morning, Kazuma," He heard Darkness greeting him not long after he finished dialling, "So, are you gonna try talking to Aqua again?".

"Mhm, depends," Kazuma rested his head against his pillow as he replied, "Is she sober right now? Or, actually, is she even awake at all?".

"Yes… to both of those. I asked the maid assigned to keep her out of trouble to ensure that she wouldn't be intoxicated for this," The older girl's words only served to cause a vein to pop on Kazuma's forehead.

"Oi, I thought you said that she had been on her best behaviour," He felt something brush through his hair, calming him down a little, "Look, if she's causing problems, Darkness, then you better tell me about it. The moment I finally get my hands on that damn NEET again, I'm seriously gonna…!".

"You're seriously gonna what?" The blonde began panting through the speaker, getting far too excited, "W-what horrible things will you do to her this time? Please, tell me! Tell me in as much detail as you'd like."

"Seriously, stop it," Came his curt reply.

A small noise of delight rang out from the other end of the line, "Ah… aha, how… blunt."

"Please just pass me over to Aqua," Kazuma took a deep breath, readying himself to inevitably get mad at the blue haired girl once again, "I'd rather get this over and done with as soon as possible."

"I see, I do hope that you at least try to be patient with her, Kazuma," Was all Darkness said before he could hear her calling out for his roommate, "Aqua, Kazuma's on the phone! He would like to talk with you for a moment."

He could faintly hear a yawn and some unintelligible mumbling for a second or so before a new voice eventually reached his ears.

"Kazuma, Kazuma!".

"Yes, I'm Kazuma."

"What didya want me for?" She cheerily asked, having seemingly already forgotten their conversation from two days prior, "Oh, do you wanna hear about how I accidentally got super lost while drunk last night and ended up in this huge basement sorta place? This mansion is huuuuge. It was really, really, creepy, but it didn't scare me, of course."

Well, at least she was in a good mood. That might make this just a little less difficult than he was expecting.

"Nope, there's something more important that you and I need to talk about, Aqua," Kazuma stated, trying to keep his voice stern without actually sounding angry, "You said that you'd have an answer about getting that job in the café by now."

"Ah, ahaha, oh," The blue haired shut-in nervously laughed, "Well, you see, Kazuma, I actually realised that I just might need a little more time to think about it after all, so how about we talk about that lat-".

"Oh, no! Absolutely not!" He wasn't even gonna give her the chance to finish. He was making sure she would take up the job now. No way was he gonna let her stall for any longer. "We are talking about this right now."

Unsurprisingly, the sound of sniffling was almost instant, "W-wuuh, why are you being so mean!? I don't need to get a stupid job, you already have one. Th-that'd just be a waste of my precious time."

If it wasn't for the level of comfort he was currently experiencing, he definitely would've completely lost his cool at that comment. Instead, he was only mildly agitated at the almost impossible heights of her ego, "We already talked about this, Aqua, you don't do anything anyway. Is it really so hard for you to even try to help fix the problem that you caused?".

Kazuma lifted the phone a small distance away from his ear in preparation for the expected round of wailing and complaining, but, to his shock, no such thing happened. Rather, after a short pause to consider her words, Aqua spoke back in an uneven tone.

"I do want to help," She snappily mumbled, the boy's eyes going wide in surprise as he heard possibly the last thing he had expected from her, "But, but, how can you just expect me to go in for long, gruelling shifts every single da-".

"Three days," He interjected, "You'll only have to do three days per week. Trying to force you into doing anything more would just be a waste of time."

"...Huh?".

"The shifts are only five hours long, too," Kazuma's voice didn't even show a hint of anger, keeping his tone as level as possible, "Oh, and, Chris - my boss - let me know that if you do get the job, you're free to choose which days you come in, as long as you do your three per week and you let her know in advance when you are and aren't coming in."

Internally, he was pretty much begging that this strategy would work. He really was selling it as best as he could to her. If she somehow still tried to refuse after all of that, he'd probably end up trying to reach through the screen just to strangle her into submission.

"Well," The blue eyed girl faltered, her main two objections taken away from her, "W-well um, what, how am I supposed to get there? A-and back home, too? You've said before that it's pretty far away, haven't you, Kazuma?".

Scratch that, she was definitely starting to test his patience again. "That obviously won't be an issue," The brunette scowled, but somehow managed to keep his tone mostly neutral, "You only have to take one bus, idiot. Plus, we'll be going to and from work at the same time, so it's not even like you'll have to remember which bus to take."

"That's… good," By this point, Kazuma knew her well enough to know that he was finally starting to tear through her already rather flimsy defences.

"Any other complaints?" He rolled his eyes, letting his free hand flop onto his cushion, "Or are you gonna be a big girl and finally get a job?".

"...Urrgggghhh," Aqua whined, stalling the inevitable, "... F-fine. I'll do it."

Kazuma's eyes widened, his mouth agape, "Seriously? Wait, wait, say it again! I wanna make sure you really said it."

"I said that I'll do it! I'll go to the stupid job interview!" She loudly claimed, before returning to something much more similar to her usual demeanour, "A-after all, if I start making my own money, I won't have to go through all the trouble of asking you for booze money, I can buy that delicious bubbly whenever I want."

"You do understand that most of your pay check will be going towards our rent, right?".

"W-w-w-w-what!?".

Though she was clearly still reluctant about the new change in her life, Aqua's outbursts were actually kept to a complete minimum as Kazuma explained the finer details to her, letting her know exactly what would be expected of her if she wanted to get the job. And he made it very, very clear to her that failing the already extremely lenient interview was not an option, unless she wanted to end up on the streets again. Sadly, that was less of a threat that Kazuma had made up to motivate her and more so just the harsh reality of their current situation.

Somehow, through monetary incentives, guilt-tripping and only a few threats, Kazuma had finally managed to convince Aqua to get a job.

What was this strange feeling of pride that was bubbling up within his chest?

One brief conversation with Darkness later, in which they discussed some of the finer details of her and Aqua's upcoming return, Kazuma finally bid the blonde girl goodbye and hung up the call.

He let out a loud sigh of relief as he locked eyes with the red faced girl above him, "That definitely could've gone a lot worse than it did."

"W-when I said that I'd do my best to help you, I meant h-helping out with your homework or something, not th-this!" Megumin indignantly puffed her cheeks out at the head of brown hair that was peacefully lying atop her thighs, "Y-you were on the phone for twenty minutes!".

"What happened to the girl who said that she'd do whatever she could to help out?" Kazuma smirked, nuzzling the back of his head into her legs to get a reaction.

"You know what I meant! I-is it really so hard for you to not act like a pervert for once!?" She retorted, before letting out a breath and going back to contently petting his head, "...Well, I guess I didn't really m-mind this all that much. As long as you do something for me in return…".

He averted his eyes, her gaze was feeling a little bit too intense for him at that moment, "O-oh? What's that, then?"

"I'll think about it…" Was all Megumin said.

"This doesn't really seem like an equal exchange, does it?" Kazuma lamented aloud, placing down a bowl in front of the expectant girl, "This took way more effort than a lap pillow would."

"We never agreed on making sure that things were equal," Megumin commented as she inspected the food, a satisfied grin on her face, "I was considering it based on the amount of time it would take. Plus, you looked like you really needed a break when I checked in on you."

For the past hour and a half, Kazuma had been - somewhat - diligently working on the remainder of his homework, in a desperate attempt to make up for around four days worth of lost time. It was only when Megumin, who made sure to check in on him fairly often, had walked into the dining room to find him face down on the table that she decided to let him have a small 'break', by means of cooking lunch for the two of them.

Sitting down in the adjacent seat, he stared down at his bowl, "So, why did you want me to make miso soup so badly, anyway?".

"Chris told me that it was your best dish on the menu, so I wanted to try it for myself," The short haired teen happily sniffed at the contents of her bowl, clearly enjoying herself, "Haaahhh, this smells really good, Kazuma."

Kazuma smiled at her praise, sending her an appreciative nod, before pausing, "Wait, when did she tell you that?".

"When me and Komekko ate there," Megumin simply responded, her face still up close with the bowl, "It was after we'd already ordered, though, so I couldn't try it at the time. And then the next time I was there… um, I-I was too focused on… o-other things, so it sorta completely slipped my mind."

"Well," He confidently smirked at her, "This could be considered my signature dish, I suppose. And I am a pretty talented chef, you know, so it's only to be expected that this would be nothing less than incredible."

"I'll kindly turn a blind eye to your blatant ego-stroking this time if this really does taste as good as it smells," She bluntly commented.

"See for yourself, then," With that declaration, he picked up his spoon and brought it up towards his bowl. Just as he was about to dip it in, a smaller hand gripped his own, pulling it away from his soup. When he looked up at the culprit, he was quickly drawn to the bashful expression adorning her face.

"What?" He felt her carefully pry the spoon from his grip, moving to instead place her own spoon in his hand. Without saying anything, she let her arms limply drop down to her sides, her eyelids fluttering shut as her mouth expectantly hung open. It really didn't take long for Kazuma to figure out exactly what she wanted from him. "S-seriously?" His mouth turned downwards, embarrassed.

Megumin nodded her head, before mumbling out a low 'please'. This was what she had planned from the beginning, wasn't it?

"...Ugggh, fine, I'll… f-feed you," He bemoaned, his cheeks heating up with a deep shade of red. His hand ever so slightly shaking, he got a spoonful of soup and gradually, slowly, raised the spoon up in the direction of her open mouth. Kazuma couldn't bring himself to look away from her face, "Y-you know how embarrassing th-this is, right? Do I r-really have to do this?".

"I-I know that! I'm e-embarrassed too," She spluttered, eyes shut tight, "Please j-just hurry up, you're making it worse."

"Okay," Was all he could manage to say at that moment, his hand getting closer and closer to her mouth. Eventually, with one final push, he guided the spoon into her mouth and gently tipped it up, with her mouth quickly closing around the utensil. After waiting for a second or two, he pulled the spoon out from her mouth and swiftly placed it back down onto the table. Swallowing with a pronounced gulp, she opened her eyes and stared at Kazuma with a content, yet flustered, smile.

"She was right…" Megumin remarked, placing her palms together in a praying motion, "P-please, Kazuma, give me the recipe!".

"N-no way!" He shot back, "That's a café secret, I c-can't just give that out to anyone."

She puffed her cheeks out at him, "I'm not just 'anyone', I'm your girlfriend!".

He couldn't help but notice how she'd gotten used to using words like 'girlfriend' and 'boyfriend' a lot quicker than he ever could. It was almost getting a little jealous of how freely she was starting to use those titles.

Kazuma took a long sip from his own spoon before his lips turned upwards and he gave a vague response. "I'll think about it."

Megumin seemed to be satisfied enough by that answer, letting out a small puff of air from her nose. As the green eyed teen briefly glanced over to her, he found himself raising a distrustful eyebrow as he noticed her happily watching him eat, not even touching her own bowl.

"Oi, are you gonna actually eat that or are you just gonna keep staring at me?".

"Huh? Yeah, of course I am," The dark haired girl beamed at him, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, "I'm just waiting for you, is all."

"You're… wha-" Kazuma began, his eyes widening as he cut himself off, "H-hold on, y-you're not actually gonna try to make me feed you this entire bowl, b-because I'm not gonna do that. Doing it once was already enough."

Sadly, feeding a cute girl was a lot more embarrassing in real life than he had initially expected. He was seriously starting to wonder how anyone could possibly do it without getting flustered.

"You can't just back out now!" Megumin stated defiantly, grabbing his hand, "We had a deal, so there's no way you can just back out halfway through. Well, unless feeding a girl is too much for you to handl-".

"I'll do it. I-it's no problem for me at all, actually. I just didn't want you getting too embarrassed," He hurriedly lied, wasting no time in scooping up a large spoonful of soup and practically thrusting the spoon into the girl's mouth.

"H-hey, wait, don't do it so quickly. Wait, Kazu-Mmph!".

Now that it was long gone, Kazuma was starting to regret having not allowed himself to fully enjoy his ' lunch break' with Megumin. Sure, it was a little embarrassing, and he was the one who had to make the food all by himself while she happily watched on from the side-lines, but he'd gladly take that over his current situation any day of the week.

"It's not like I'll be able to somehow make that money within a few days anyway, no matter what I do, so there's no point even considering that as an option," He explained as he sat cross legged on his bed, scrolling through the contact list on his phone, "My best option is just trying to borrow money from someone else. Based on my current wages, and what I'm assuming Aqua's wages will be, I should easily be able to pay them back in full within a month or so."

"You really did think this whole thing through," Megumin commented, sounding genuinely impressed, "But, do you actually know anyone would be willing to lend you that money?".

"That's what I was trying to figure out before you came in," The emerald eyed boy itched his collar bone with his free hand as Megumin sat down next to him, "There are a few options, but really not as many as I would've liked. And, also not really the people that I would've liked it to be, either."

She absentmindedly nibbled at her bottom lip as she considered his words, "What do you mean by that?".

"Well, look at it this way," Kazuma placed his phone down onto the bedsheets and raised his fist to start listing things off with his fingers, "You're not an option for obvious reasons. Darkness is pretty ri- has some money, but I already feel like I've made her suffer enough by making her look after Aqua, so I'd rather not ask her for more on top of that. Chris is already paying me and, hopefully, Aqua, so there's no way she'd be willing to give me even more money, and "

"You have more friends than that, don't you?" Megumin peered over his shoulder to look at his phone screen, "Huh, you have a ton of contacts here."

"Mhm, yeah, I wasn't finished," He rubbed at his eye with the back of his finger before refocusing his attention back onto his phone, "As far as people I know from Axel go, there still aren't that many great options. I do have one friend who actually owes me some money, but trying to get him to pay me back seems like way more trouble than it's worth, sadly. I'd try asking Eris, but I don't exactly have a way to contact her."

The crimson eyed girl reached out and scrolled up to the 'E' section of the contacts list, moving her gaze over to Kazuma. "Wait, you don't have her phone number?".

"Nope, she's weirdly secretive abou- Oi, why do you look so happy about that?".

The shorter teen averted her eyes, fighting back a smile, "Nooo reason."

"Well, whatever," Kazuma sighed, narrowly avoiding colliding with her as he flopped backwards onto the mattress, "This is so boring. Maybe I should just ask Darkness anyway."

"Hmm," She put a finger to her cheek, scrunching her forehead, "I could try asking Yunyun for you, her parents seem pretty well-off from what I've seen. But you have to promise that you'll actually pay her back, okay?".

"Oh yeah, I considered asking her," Kazuma placed his free hand behind his head as he scrolled down to Yunyun's name in his contacts, "But I'd rather not have to ask for money from some middle school girl that I barely kno-".

"You have h-her number!?" Megumin frantically lunged at the phone "D-delete that!".

Kazuma quickly yanked his phone away, protectively cradling it in his arms. "O-oi, don't be rough with it! It might break any day now,". Seeing the pronounced pout on her face, he rolled his eyes before sitting back up, "Stop looking at me like that, I only gave her my number so she could let us know in advance if she was gonna make another random appearance here like last time."

"That better be the case…".

"Look, your whole 'getting jealous of every single girl that I'm even remotely close with' schtick is kinda cute at times, but can we just go back to the more important subject now?".

"...Fine," Megumin grumbled under her breath, before quickly returning to her normal demeanour, "So, you've gone through all the people that you're not gonna ask, but have you actually found anyone to ask yet?".

"Well, that wasn't everyone that I considered, but you get the gist," He admitted, "Honestly, while I'm not really sure if they'd actually be willing to lend me money, my parents probably seem like the best people to ask for this. Even if I'd, well, I'd rather not."

"Are… are you sure?" She asked, a little surprised by his decision. It certainly wasn't what she would've chosen. But, to be fair, Kazuma knew them a thousand times better than she ever would, obviously, they were his parents.

Kazuma shrugged, "It's worth a shot."

"Oh, Kazuma," His mother greeted him as Kazuma changed the call to speakerphone, "I didn't think that you'd call again so soon, haha…".

"Hey mom," Kazuma replied, his eyes briefly meeting Megumin's as he sent her an ironic frown, "Is now a good time to call, or…?".

Right. He had forgotten how awkward talking to his parents was now. It didn't help that he was only calling them to ask for money.

"Mhm, yeah, now's a fine time to talk. We're all just spending time in our inn for the time being," She explained from the other end of the line, her tone being a generally friendly one, "Is there something specific that you're calling to talk about? Would you like me to get your father on the phone, too?".

Truthfully, no, He'd rather not have his father on the phone. Of the two, his mother was far more reasonable with their eldest son and, as a result, was much more likely to actually hear him out. But, on the other hand, he couldn't really not include his dad in the discussion. He'd find out about it eventually, whether he liked it or not.

As such, Kazuma let out a tired sigh before answering, "Yeah, sure. If he's available, I guess."

And so, around thirty seconds later, Kazuma's mother had called her husband into the room to join the conversation.

"So," She continued, "What was it that you were calling us about, Kazuma? Have you managed to find a new apartment yet?".

"Actually, yeah, I found a h- apartment to rent out for the next couple of months. It's a little more expensive than the last one I had, but the money from my part-time job should be enough to keep up with the rent."

Kazuma ignored the pointed look he was getting from Megumin. It's not like he particularly wanted to lie to his parents, but it made things a lot easier for him if he did. He made sure to mouth a quick 'I know' to her before focusing back on the call.

"That's… good," His father begrudgingly said, still not happy about his living situation, "And so this… part-time job, you do it alongside going to school, right?".

"Yes, I do both," The brunette insisted, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand, "My shifts are always after school."

"...And you do actually go to school now?".

Kazuma grabbed at his face in frustration, "Urgh, yes, yes. I'm going to school again now. Look, can we please just move on to what I wanted to talk about?".

Megumin carefully pried the boy's hand from his face and guided it away. She sent him a reassuring smile, with the boy then mouthing something to her. She couldn't exactly tell what he was saying, but if she had to guess, he was mostly complaining about the current situation.

"Right," His father's voice was noticeably more serious than it had been just before, "What is it then, son?"

Letting out a loud sigh, Kazuma scratched at his chin before speaking, "I, uhm… I need to borrow some money from you two. Thirteen thousand yen, to be exact. I-I will pay it back, seriously, I just need enough to pay off an extra one-time payment on the apartment and I don't get paid until the end of the month, you see."

"No way," His father's response was instant, "I thought we'd already told you that we wouldn't keep sending you money if we don't even know what you're using it for. "

"Son," Her tone was firm, but understanding, "What your father is trying to say is that if you're having these kinds of money problems, maybe it's for the best that you just move back home until you can properly live on your own. I'm sure it'll be much easier for you to focus on school if you're back at home, too."

"She's right. We don't even know anything about what you're doing with your life at the moment, you can't expect us to blindly give you money when it'd be much better for everyone if you just moved back in for a few more years."

Kazuma let out a loud groan. This was going nowhere. Sure, he could, unfortunately, admit that their worries were not at all unreasonable or unfounded. Actually, it made complete sense that they'd think the way they did, especially with how he had acted at times in the past. That fact didn't make him feel any less frustrated with them, though.

Unbeknownst to him, Megumin was feeling a similar way. The lack of faith they had in Kazuma was starting to offend her, too, for some reason. She really, more than anything else at that moment, wanted to convince them to change their minds about Kazuma.

Acting on that desire, and not thinking as much as she should have , she quickly steeled her resolve and snatched the phone from her boyfriend's hand, bringing it up to her own mouth.

"O-oi, Megu-".

"Um, e-excuse me, uhm… Mr and Mrs S-satou," She stuttered, quickly regretting her fairly spur-of-the-moment decision, "Hello, I'm M-megumin, Kazuma has been staying with me a-and my family while he's been trying to find a new place t-to live, you see."

Kazuma silently panicked, frantically waving his arms around and motioning for her to stop. She flashed him a guilty smile and motioned for him to let him talk to them, just for a little bit. She hoped that he wouldn't be too mad at her afterwards.

"O-oh? Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Megumin. We're very grateful that you and your family would be generous enough to house our son for the time being," Kazuma's mother replied, albeit a little awkwardly, "I do hope that he hasn't caused too many problems for you all."

The middle schooler blushed at the praise she was receiving, "Not at all, ma'am. Having Kazuma around has actually been a good thing if anything. He's been really h-helpful around the house, a-and he's helped take care of my little sister, too."

Perhaps she was laying it on a bit too thick with how she was talking about Kazuma, but she got the sense that she pretty much had to if she wanted to convince his parents. It's not like she was lying, either, he really had been helping take care of the house during his stay.

"Are we talking about the same Kazuma?" His father joked. Or, at least, Megumin hoped it was a joke. Had Kazuma really been that bad back when he was a shut-in? She barely managed to avoid laughing at the enraged spluttering coming from the boy beside her.

"Ah, so, Megumin," Kazuma's mother brought the conversation back onto track, "Was there something that you wanted to talk to us about, dear?".

"Uhm, well, I know i-it's probably not my place to say this, so I'm sorry if this seems rude," Megumin fidgeted with her free hand, eventually settling with gently placing it over her beating heart, "B-but, uhm, I think that, if you can, you should l-let Kazuma borrow that money?".

"O-oh?" Admittedly, both parents were a little taken aback by how direct this girl that they'd barely just been introduced to was acting.

"He'll definitely pay you back, I'll make sure of it! A-and I can confirm that he does go to school and work regularly. Sure, maybe he's a little lazy at times, but he isn't a shut-in anymore, o-or a NEET, either! He's been working really hard for the past few days to get the money to pay for this apartment, s-so…" She trailed off, losing her nerve. She was starting to feel like she was just rudely forcing herself into a situation that was supposed to stay between Kazuma and his parents.

"Sorry," Megumin mumbled before they could even reply, "I might've overstepped a little bit. This has nothing to do with me."

"...And you're not lying?" His father questioned.

"N-no, not at all!" Megumin defensively shot back, "I just really think that this would really go a long way for Kazuma if you did this for him…".

The middle schooler felt a small warmth spread throughout her chest as she peeked over at Kazuma, seeing his lip tremble as a deep red blush coated his entire face.

"We… we could put some more thought into it… Megumin, was it?" Kazuma's mother kindly told her "I can't promise anything, but knowing that our son has such a close friend like you who seems to have a lot of faith in him certainly puts me at ease quite a lot. I guess it wouldn't hurt to see what we could maybe do about this payment."

The red eyed teen felt her face slowly heat up, "Uhm, well, a-actually, me and Kazum-".

"Th-that's enough of that!" Kazuma desperately wrenched the phone back from her grip, "Sorry about her, she wasn't at all trying to be rude, I promise. So, anyway, about that loan…".

He glanced over at Megumin, noticing a complicated look on her face as she went back to anxiously fidgeting with her hands.

He'd find a proper way to thank her later. And, also, a proper way to punish her.

"This is new," Chris commented as Kazuma slumped into the café, "You usually only look this exhausted after a shift."

He glanced over at his boss, locking eyes with her, "Chief, please give me a paid day off. Just for today."

"Hmm" She closely studied the boy's features, closely analysing the ever-present faint dark circles under his eyes before shrugging, "No can do, sorry, helper. But I could offer you an unpaid day off instead."

Chris watched on in interest as the younger teen's face scrunched up in deep consideration before he let out an annoyed groan. "I wish I could take you up on that offer," Kazuma said, making his way over to the silver haired girl, "But it really doesn't seem like the smartest idea at the moment."

"Yep, that's helper. Always complaining to no end, but getting the job done in the end," She smirked, "To… some degree of quality."

"Oi."

"I'm kidding!" Chris waved her hands in a surrendering motion before her eyes glanced up at the wall mounted clock, "Anyway, what's up with the punctuality today? I know I'm always encouraging you to come in early, but isn't this a little bit too early?".

"Trust me," Kazuma slumped into one of the chairs nearby the front desk, "I wouldn't be here this early without good reason."

"Oh?" Her mouth formed into a small circle as she shot him a confused look, her face then lighting up in realisation a moment later, "Is it about that roommate of yours that you're so insistent about having me hire?". Kazuma let out a low hum of confirmation as he slowly nodded his head, "So what's the update?".

"I managed to convince her to take the offer, somehow" He explained, supporting his chin with his forearms, "Apparently, her and Darkness should be getting back at some point during Sunday morning, so I could get her over here for that interview the same day, if you want."

The older teen put a fist up to her chin, letting out a low humming sound, "Well, the sooner we can get her working, the better. Dontcha think?"

"If it gets one less problem off of my hands, then sure," Was his simple retort.

"I sure do hope that she's as hireable as you say," Chris mused to herself, rhythmically tapping her fingers against the countertop, "I'm fine with having to teach her the ins and outs of the kitchen - she is a special case - but she really will have to be capable on her own when it comes to serving if I'm going to hire her. As much as I feel bad about saying this, she is a potential employee, not a charity case."

"I know. Hey, if it makes you feel any better, Darkness said that she would help get Aqua prepared for the interview over the next few days. Having maids around all the time does seem pretty helpful when it comes to learning how to do service work, I suppose." The part-timer shrugged, taking a quick glance down at his phone screen.

"Hu- Maids? How did-?" Her eyes momentarily widened before she let out a small laugh and returned to normal, "Right, never mind. I forgot that you knew about the real situation with 'Lalatina' already."

Kazuma smirked, "You know that she wouldn't be happy if she heard you calling her that name, chief."

"Then it's a good thing that she can't hear me right now, isn't it?".

"Still," He slumped forward, loudly exhaling, "What are the chances that some rich girl in disguise would come work here of all places? Actually, forget that, what are the chances of that happening in the first place? I never thought that any of that 'secret identity' stuff actually happened outside of fiction."

"Y-yeah, me too," Chris's response, for some reason, seemed a little nervous, "That kind of thing does seem a little bit too fantastical, doesn't it?".

The younger teen shot her a strange look, she was definitely acting weird. Was there something else that she wasn't telling him about Darkness? "Oi, chi-".

"So, helper!" She hurriedly interjected, her usual peppy attitude back into full swing, "Is that everything you have for me, or is there anything else you wanna report?".

"Anything else? Uhhhm," The teen scrunched his brow, trying to remember if he'd forgotten anything, "Nope, that should be everything. I just wanted to let you know about Aqua taking up the offer."

Chris happily nodded to herself, donning a satisfied smile, "Mhm, good, good. It sure will be nice to have a couple more pairs of hands to help out around here in a few days, won't it?".

"If it's those two, then I seriously doubt that they'll 'help out' much," He complained, sending his boss a pointed look, "You better not even think about putting me on babysitting duty when they get back, chief."

"Oh, I sure will think about it, helper!" The short haired girl playfully stuck her tongue out at him before giving him a hearty slap on the back. "Well, anyway, we'll be opening back up for the evening soon, so you best go get changed now. And feel free to make yourself a coffee while you're at it, you seriously look like you need one."

Kazuma showed her a tired smile as he got up and wandered off into the back. "Yeah. Thanks, chief."

"Finally," His muffled voice rang out as he flopped face-first onto the bed, "It's finally over."

Megumin raised an eyebrow at the boy, unceremoniously sprawled out on the mattress, "Surely it wasn't that bad, right? I mean, all things considered, you didn't really have that many things to do today."

"It's not that simple," Kazuma explained, unmoving, "It's not about the amount of things that I did, it's about how exhausting each one was. And trust me, convincing Aqua to do something, asking my parents for money and being forced to write an essay under the scrutiny of someone who definitely wants you to suffer is about as exhausting as it gets."

"W-wants you to suffer!? That's not even remotely true!" The crimson eyed girl baulked at him, "I let you take multiple breaks, and I wrote an entire paragraph for you! It's not my fault that you only want to do the bare minimum work."

"That," Kazuma raised a finger into the air, "Is called efficiency, Megumin. What's the point in putting extra effort into something if you don't get anything extra out of it?".

Megumin sat herself down onto the side of the bed with a soft thud, faintly smiling to herself, "How can one person be so hardworking and so lazy at the same time?".

The older teen let out a soft groan as moved his head to the side, facing her. After a second or so, he lifted up the covers and lethargically crawled underneath, patting the spot next to him.

"Come on, I'm tired," To prove his point, Kazuma stifled a yawn, letting his eyes slowly close, "I actually wanna go to sleep now."

With little hesitation, Megumin swung her legs onto the mattress and tossed the bed sheet over herself, her head sinking into the pillow. She rolled over onto her side and wrapped her arms around the brunette, with him eventually following suit. They stayed like that, neither speaking, for around a minute, until Kazuma took it upon himself to speak up.

He slowly opened his eyes, almost recoiling as he noticed the pair of deep red eyes that were staring directly at him, before opening his mouth. "Hey, uhm, is like, is something gonna happen, or what?".

"Something?" Megumin repeated, giving him a curious - yet otherwise neutral - look.

"You… know what I mean," He frowned, his eyes becoming shifty, "Isn't this s-supposed to be the part where we, y'know, do something?".

A look of reservation washed over her face. "D-didn't you just tell me that you were tired?".

"I am," Kazuma insisted, "That doesn't ch-change what I just said, does it?".

Crimson eyes continued to stare deeply into him, accompanied by similar coloured cheeks as the smaller teen let out a barely noticeable shiver, "G-go ahead, then."

Well, that was all the encouragement Kazuma needed. Even if they'd done things like this a few times before, he still found himself getting nervous at the thought of… of…

Wait, what exactly was Megumin expecting him to do?

She wanted him to kiss her, right? Yeah, that made sense to Kazuma. They'd ended up kissing in some shape or form every other time they'd slept together so far, so it only made sense. But still, what if… what if she was really willing to go further? The timing would make enough sense, perhaps their date from the day before had been the encouragement she needed to start considering the idea of… going further.

But then again, what if his hormonal brain was just making something out of nothing again? It was entirely likely that she really did just want him to kiss her again, If that was the case, and he tried to make a move - especially a more… passionate move - things would definitely turn very bad very quickly. He needed to come up with a-

"Kazuma?" He felt a soft hand come to rest against his cheek as he was pulled out of his thoughts, followed by subdued giggling, "You d-don't have to be so nervous, okay?".

He wasn't nervous, dammit, he was just being thorough! Still though, the way she was presently looking at him was making it almost impossible for him to just stay there doing nothing. In a split-second decision, Kazuma decided that he'd try to escalate things between them step by step.

Doing everything he could to will away the rapid beating of his heart, he pressed forward, closing the gap and locking their lips together within less than a second. Letting out a muffled noise into Kazuma's mouth, Megumin wasted no time in kissing back, her arms moving up to coil around his neck. Kazuma's lips parted further as he felt the girl's tongue collide with his front teeth, commencing what was already their second French kiss.

As they continued what Kazuma was pretty sure was an impromptu make-out session, he decided to make his move. The hand that was on her waist had begun to slowly, subtly, slide downwards - he'd test the waters with something small. The green eyed boy cracked open his eyelids enough to study Megumin's expression as his hand moved further downwards, nothing on her face seemed to be out of the ordinary. Did that mean that she was okay with it, or was she just not paying attention?

With her tongue wrestling against his own, his hand finally reached its destination, feeling the almost identical fabric of her tracksuit pants as his hand came to rest on her butt. Actually, now that he was here, maybe it was a bad idea after all. Yeah, maybe he should just ask her, she'd probably let him do something if he just asked.

Unfortunately, as he mulled over his thoughts, his fingers began to nervously flex, his hand clenching and unclenching. The moment he accidentally applied a small amount of force to his grip, groping her cheek, he suddenly heard a muffled, yet distinct, gasp as Megumin jerked back away from him, breaking the kiss.

Never mind, he'd definitely messed up.

"Kkkkauugh!" Kazuma clenched his teeth as a sudden rush of pain hit the most sensitive part of his body, tears instantly welling up in the corners of his eyes. In a moment of surprise, Megumin must have accidentally kneed him in the balls.

"K-kazuma!" The dark haired girl squealed as the boy writhed around in pain under the covers, "D-d-don't just do something like that without warning!".

The brunette, not really paying much attention to what she was saying, took a few deep breaths as he tried to maintain what little composure he had left. Even if that had been all but lost the moment he started crying while clutching at his crotch.

"Uhm, are you… okay?" Megumin asked as she finally took in the rather pathetic scene in front of her, "I-I'm not really that mad at you. It's okay, you don't have to cry."

"I'm not crying about that," He whined, stopping his squirming enough to glare at her, "You just kneed me in the balls, you… you…!".

"Pfft!" Kazuma's glare increased in intensity, leering directly at her, "Sorry, s-sorry, you just looked really funny like that. Does it… actually hurt that bad?".

"Yes! Of course it does. Can you please, like, do something to help? This hurts like shit."

"Shh! You'll wake Komekko up if you keep being so loud," Megumin sighed before moving over and cradling the boy's head to her chest, "Even though you did kinda deserve it, I'm sorry. Just try to stop moving around so much for me, okay?".

"You're totally treating me the same way you treat your little sister whenever she accidentally trips over, aren't you!? Your personality just totally switched," His voice was muffled as he complained into the fabric of her tracksuit.

"Shh, shhh, please stop crying. Big sis will make your ouchie all better, okay?" She patronisingly shushed him as she stroked his head.

"O-oi, you actually are! I was joking about that! I-in what world would you be my big sis? There's nothing 'big' about you."

"D-do you want me to take care of you or not?" She hissed, breaking character, "Because if not, I can happily knee you in the balls again even harder for that last comment."

"Never mind," His answer was almost instant, nuzzling his face into her chest, "P-please keep taking care of me, Megumin."

"A-ah," The short haired girl tightly hugged his head, making sure that he couldn't look up at her face, "Well, i-if you're gonna ask me like that, th-then how could I say n-no? B-but please stop breathing so heavily. K-kazuma, I'm serious!".

With his manhood still in immense amounts of pain, and a girl two years his junior treating him like a four year old girl after witnessing one of his most shameful moments in recent history, Kazuma could only find it within himself to grumble out a single sentence.

"Today sucked… just let me have this one thing."

His current position was pretty comfy.