part 1:

After the incident where Shizuru and Rino snuck into bed with him, Yuuki didn't think he and Karyl were going to be working together anytime soon. Yet one week after that incident, that's exactly what happened.

The members of the gourmet guild had gotten a request to go to the Genua Desert and find a cactus that held inside it a sweet juice that was perfect for the summer heat. While Pecorine wasn't busy this time, Shefi was sick, leading her and Kokkoro to look after her.

At first, Kokkoro suggested that she and her master Yuuki go out to the desert to find the cactus in question, but Kyaru stepped in and volunteered to go, much to the surprise of everyone, including Yuuki himself.

"Are you sure ? I recall you weren't a very big fan of the desert last time we went."

"Yes. I feel like getting out and adventuring for once, and I'm quite interested in this drink as well."

"Very well then, take care of my lord." Kokkoro stated.

Pecorine saw the two off, wishing them the best of luck in their journey to the desert. On the way there, Kyarl made her intentions clear with Yuuki.

"Just so you know, I'm keeping a tight leash on you." she said in a stern tone.

"I was hoping you'd forget about what happened last week…"

"It's kind of hard to forget the fact that you're always with girls no matter where you go. Even during the simplest task we give you, you somehow wind up with a girl tagging along. I can't help but wonder if you do this on purpose."

"I just don't understand it either…" Kyaru thought to herself. "How does he do it? Getting all these girls to fall for him? Well…I"m not gonna allow that to happen on this trip. We're going to get this cactus, and get out…"

It took them some time, but Kyaru and Yuuki were able to make it to the desert, greeted by the small town that was full of residents there. A part of the request was a free stay at one of the hotels there.

"Damn this heat. That's the one thing I don't miss about this desert." Kyaru said. It didn't take too long for the heat of the desert to hit the duo hard. Yuuki had made sure to bring lots of water with him so the two wouldn't dehydrate.

Despite the heat, lots of people were out in the town, shopping and walking around.

"How can these people spend this much time out in the heat like this?" Kyaru thought to herself. "I've only been out here for 5 minutes and I can't stand it."

Kyaru grabbed Yuuki's hand, much to his surprise.

"Now don't get any funny idea's Yuuki, I'm only doing this because I don't want you to get lost, and knowing you're "luck" you'll wind up running into some cute girl again."

While on the outside she acted cold, on the inside Kyaru was nervous about what she was doing.

"I can't believe I'm holding hands with Yuuki. I mean, I don't really mind it…but still. Damn you Yuuki, this is all because whenever you get lost you get caught up in some trouble that involves girls!"

Before anyone in the town could assume they were a couple, Kyaru quickly made her way to the hotel, wanting to check in and drop off some of their equipment. Once inside, the clerk greeted the two.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

"We're from the gourmet guild." Kyaru said, showing the man the paper the guild association gave them.

"I see. I'm glad you two are here. It's almost summertime and the sweet cactus is in high demand not just here, but all across the country. We would get it ourselves, but we've run into some trouble doing so."

"Trouble? As in monster trouble?"

The clerk nodded.

"Great…another round of facing monsters in the desert. Just what I need…"

"But hey, don't sweat it just yet. Why don't you two make yourselves at home here and take a look around town. We've got plenty to see and even a few fashion shops that just recently opened up."

"Well, why not? If we're gonna be here, we mind as well enjoy it right Yuuki?"

Yuuki nodded. The clerk took the two to their hotel room. The room wasn't anything special, but was a decent size. It even included a bathing room, which was something not many hotels in Landsol could say they had, unless they were the super fancy kind.

There was one downside to the room however, and that was the number of beds it came with. There was only one bed in the room, two if you counted the couch that sat at one end of the room.

"I guess this is where I'll be sleeping." Yuuki said, walking over to the couch.

"Actually…I'm fine with you sleeping in the bed with me."

What Kyaru said took Yuuki by surprise. It seemed out of character for Kyaru not to make a fuss over Yuuki sleeping in bed with her, but she seemed to have no problem with it in this instance. This also shocked Kyaru as well.

"What the heck am I saying? I should be thanking Yuuki for making the smart decision to go sleep on the couch instead of assuming he has a spot in bed with me! Yet…here I am, asking him to sleep with me. Ugh…I feel myself getting flustered."

Kyaru composed herself and made an excuse as to why she was OK with it on the spot.

"I'm not happy about the one bed situation, but I need you to rest well so we can defeat whatever monsters come our way quickly. The sooner we get this mission done, the sooner we can get out of the heat."

Yuuki didn't question it. Sleeping on couches wasn't something he was used to, although he seemed to adjust to sleeping out in the outdoors just fine.

"Anyway, why don't we take a look around town. I want to see if they have any lighter clothes we can wear so we aren't so hot and miserable out here."

part 2:

Yuuki stood in front of a mirror looking at himself. He was shirtless wearing a blue pair of swim trunks with sandals. While an odd choice of clothing for the desert indeed, Yuuki felt much cooler once he put it on, when compared to wearing all that armor he had on when he got to the desert.

Yuuki went back up to the clerk and handed him the money for the pair of trunks. Before he headed out of the shop he went back to check on Kyaru.

"You OK in there?"

"Yes, yes! I'm fine! Be patient and don't you dare try to peak!"

"Trust me sir, I've given her one of the sexiest outfits my store carries, it will be worth the wait." said the store clerk.

"Alright, well I'm going to wait outside."

"OK, wait outside, and don't you dare go off with any other girls!"

Yuuki headed back outside, blinded by the light of the sun once more. Though Yuuki still felt hot, the heat was much less bearable now in his new attire.

"Yo, Yuuki!"

Yuuki followed the voice calling out to him to find Akira Mosakuji, otherwise known as lady labyrista. Akira was wearing a swimsuit, with a red top and red bikini. Yuuki didn't find the attire too much as it was hot out, and wearing something of that nature seemed appropriate.

"How's my princess knight doing?" she said, handing him a crepe.

"Other than some interesting encounters with some of the girl's here, I've been doing pretty good." Yuuki said.

"It honestly takes me back to the days when you used to go out of your way to meet all sorts of girls, then you lost your memory and became much more wholesome about it."

"Was I really like that in the past?" Yuuki asked.

"I know quite a bit about you young man…" Akira said, patting the boy on the head. "Anyway, there's something I wanted to ask you." she said, now in a serious tone.

"I know this may seem strange to ask, but I was wondering if you've been having any strange dreams as of lately?"

Yuuki thought to himself for a bit, and then answered.

"Well…I did have a dream that Shizuru and Rino had snuck into my room. Or at least I thought it was a dream until I woke up to both of them next to me."

"I'll have to have a serious chat with them about that…" Akira thought to herself. "They told me they were doing late night training!"

"Anything else? Anything that seemed out of the blue and unfamiliar to you?"

"Well…there was this dream I had with a girl named Ranpha. It was weird, I was all dressed up to go to this ball with a bunch of people I didn't recognize or know. She had chosen me to dance with her."

"Hmmm…that's not something from his memories…that's something different entirely. I was afraid of something like this." Akira thought to herself.

"Well listen Yuuki, if you have any more weird dreams, just let me know OK?"

"Uh, sure…" Yuuki said, somewhat confused.

"And if you have any naughty dreams of me wearing this outfit…I won't hold it against you." she said with a giggle.

Before Yuuki could respond, he heard Kyaru calling him. Yuuki turned around to find the girl now wearing a belly dancer outfit. The outfit was a light purple, coming with gold bracelets that Kyaru wore around her ankles and wrist.

"What did I say about wandering off?" she said, crossing her arms angrily. Yuuki looked back only to find that Akira and her stand were no longer there, much to his surprise. Gathering himself up, Yuuki explained that he just went to grab Kyaru a crepe.

"Oh…I see." she said, taking the crepe from Yuuki. "Well, I appreciate the snack. What do you think about my attire? I didn't want to wear it because it showed off too much skin in my opinion, but the man at the dress shop insisted I'd wear it."

"I think it looks good on you." Yuuki said with a smile.

"Thanks." Kyaru said, taking a bite out of the crepe to try and hide the fact that Yuuki's statement made her heart flutter.

"I don't want to keep everyone waiting, but I think it's best if we wait till tomorrow to go looking for this cactus in question. It's afternoon now and i"m quite tired. In the meantime though, we could look around town."

"I'm OK with that." Yuuki said.

"Great, follow me." Kyaru said, once again holding Yuuki's hand with no issue.

Yuuki and Kyaru spent most of the day looking around the town, going in and out of shops and even eating at one of the restaurants there. Though no one said it out loud, Yuuki could hear a couple of the people in town talking about how they looked like a cute couple.

Kyaru also heard this, and was getting annoyed by the comments.

"Ugh, me and Yuuki are not a couple! At the same time though, I can't blame them. I've been quite daring today, doing things such as holding Yuuki's hand and chatting with him casually. I don't like it…but I can't blame them."

Ever since the mind stone incident, Kyaru has become more and more self aware of how many girls Yuuki would hang out with, and in turn would get upset whenever she caught him doing something "indecent" with the girls in question.

At the same time, she never did ask him more clearly what he meant by that. That was going to change tonight however.

It was night, and Yuuki and Kyaru laid beside each other in bed.

"Say…Yuuki?"

"Hmm?"

"A while back when you told me that you liked everyone, what exactly did you mean by that?"

It took him a moment, but Yuuki finally responded to Kyaru's question.

"I know it sounds dumb, but I want to care for everyone in my life. You all mean a lot to me, you've done a lot to help me with my amnesia and protect me from the monsters in the area when I wasn't that strong. The least I can do is try to return the favor." Yuuki said.

"And what about me? What do you think of me?"

"You're kind Kyaru. Even back when you were under mind control, I knew you wouldn't mean any harm under normal circumstances and we needed to save you."

Kyaru felt herself getting more and more emotional at the answers Yuuki spilled out.

"Kyaru, if I may ask, why are you as-"

Before Yuuki could finish, Kyaru had rolled herself onto Yuuki's chest and kissed him deeply. The two shared a kiss for what felt like an eternity, before Kyaru released her lips from his.

"I'm not going to spell it out for you Yuuki…" she said quietly, before laying her head onto his bare chest and hugging him. Yuuki didn't know how to feel, but knew exactly what she was trying to tell him. He held her that night in his arms, and the two fell asleep like that.

Part 3:

"Hyaah!"

Kyaru took out two monsters using an ice spell from her magic staff. Thanks to the night that she and Yuuki shared, she felt more energetic and motivated to take out every monster that came her way. So much so that Yuuki could barely lay a sword on any of them.

Yuuki was going to comment to Kyaru about how energetic she was today, but he already knew the answer as to why. It still took him back a bit, spending a romantic night with Kyaru after being hit with a kiss on the lips.

"Hey, Yuuki!"

Yuuki snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Kyaru.

"What's the map say now?"

Yuuki quickly took the map that he'd been given by the innkeeper out of his pocket and unrolled it.

"According to the map, the cactus we're looking for should be over here." Yuuki said, pointing towards an area on the map that was practically blank. The area in question didn't have anything around it, and the only other thing the innkeeper told them was that the monsters would give away its location, as there were many around that area.

"Even in this outfit I'm sweating like hell." she said with a sigh. "Couldn't this thing be in a nice shaded area or near water?"

"I doubt we'll find that here. I made sure to bring water though." Yuuki said. Kyaru took a sip from the container of water that Yuuki had on her, before handing it back to him. Yuuki also took a sip from the same container as well, causing an indirect kiss, not that it mattered much as the night before they had a direct one.

"Usually if I took a sip from the same bottle, she'd freak out, but now she doesn't seem to mind." Yuuki thought to himself. "It's gonna take time getting used to this new Kyaru."

The two continued their march in the desert, but despite what the innkeeper said, the monsters became fewer and fewer, causing concern to the two.

"Are you sure we're going the right way Yuuki? The innkeeper said the monsters would give away the location of this thing by appearing all over the place, yet we've barely ran into any! Not that I'm complaining."

Yuuki took out a compass, another item that the innkeeper gave them to try and help them find the cactus in question, and on the compass it read "Northeast", the same direction they'd been going since they left town.

"Well, we're still going northeast. We'll keep going a bit further and if we don't see anything, we'll turn back."

The duo continued to travel the same way, but still didn't see anything other than miles and miles of sand, alongside the light of the sun. Just as Kyaru was about ready to tell Yuuki to turn back, the two saw something up ahead.

"Could that be?" Kyaru asked.

"I hope it is…" Yuuki said, looking at the same thing Kyaru saw. Instead of finding one cactus in the desert, the duo seemed to hit the jackpot and found a whole bunch. The cactus in question looked exactly like the ones they were looking for, with a flower on top of it and no spikes on it.

"Let's get going Yuuki!" Kyaru said, grabbing Yuuki's arm and running towards the cacti.

"Let's not get too excited Kyaru, there's a good chance that these cacti could just be a mirage!" Yuuki warned.

When the two got to the cacti, Yuuki placed his hand on it carefully to see if it was real or not.

"Well? Is it real?"

"This one is at least." Yuuki said, before cutting the cactus open. Inside was the lime green juice they were looking for. Yuuki took out a container and scooped the water into it. He then went to the next cactus in question, and opened it up. It too contained the same liquid.

Yuuki did this to just about all the cacti there until he ran out of room in the containers.

"This is amazing, we hit the jackpot!" Kyaru said.

"Yeah, we should have plenty of juice now, but if not, we can always go back."

Just as the duo were about to head back however, they heard a rumbling sound.

"Please tell me that was you're stomach Yuuki…"

Before Yuuki could answer, a giant pile of dirt was flung towards the duo, causing them to fall back as sand flew around them. Yuuki and Kyarl quickly got back up to their feet, only to see the sand hammer standing before them.

"Him again?" Kyarl said, remembering the last time they had to fight this creature.

"Let's defeat him quickly and get back to town…" Yuuki said, powering Kyarl up. Kyarl wasted no time in throwing spells at the creature. While the spells were a direct hit on the beast, they didn't do too much damage to him. The beast shook off the spells and started firing more mud balls at Kyarl and Yuuki. Yuuki got in front of Kyarl and blocked the mud balls from hitting her.

"Thanks Yuuki!" Kyarl said before firing ice at the creature. The creature was able to dodge the attacks. Yuuki took a shot at the creature with his sword, but was hit right in the stomach by it's tongue.

Yuuki flew back in the sand hard.

"Yuuki!" Kyarl shouted, running over to him.

"I'm alright…" Yuuki said, grunting in pain. Kyarl was already in an unpleasant mood, having to travel in the hot dry desert she hated so much once more. If it wasn't for her romantic night with Yuuki, the trip would be hell on earth for her.

"Enough is enough…" she mumbled. Using all her energy and strength, Kyarl summoned a giant energy ball from her staff, and shot it right at the creature. The ball hit the creature right in the chest. She then hit it again, and again, and again, until the creature fell down in the sand.

Even then, she continued to fire away.

"Ok! Ok! I think you defeated the creature Kyarl…" Yuuki shouted, snapping her out of her fit of rage.

"Oh…sorry about that…" Kyarl said. "Anyway, let's get back to town."

Part 4:

Yuuki and Kyarl were heading back home to Landsol, the juice they were looking for in hand.

"Man, that was exhausting…" Kyarl said, stretching her arms.

"Yeah, but at least we got what we were looking for."

"Hopefully that's the last time we have to visit that damn desert for a while…" Kyarl said.

"Yeah…"

The two became silent, only the sound of their footsteps and nature around them could be heard between the two. Kyarl still had the romantic night on her mind. Sure, nothing too exciting had happened between the two, and Yuuki did technically sleep with other girls in Landsol (in a could you join me in bed way), but feeling Yuuki hold her like that while she slept, she couldn't deny it was one of the more better sleeps she's had.

"Say…Yuuki."

"Hm?"

"What do you think about us dating?"

"As in a romantic way?"

Kyarl nodded. Yuuki thought about it for a moment, before answering.

"I wouldn't mind, but at the same time, I don't want to let you down."

"As a boyfriend?"

Yuuki nodded. "Or have you worried about me hanging out with many of the girls I help in Landsol."

"True…and I suppose due to your amnesia you don't know much about dating huh?"

Yuuki nodded.

While Kyarl knew better to let her get her hopes up, she didn't want to just give up. She already made the statement clear, and inspite of how dense he may act, Yuuki seemed to get the memo. That's when she got an idea.

"You know, we can still date, just as practice."

"Practice?"

"Yeah, why not? Dating is important Yuuki, it's how you decide who you like, and is just in general a great way to wind down and relax. Why don't we do that?"

"Well, if it will help me out with my amnesia, I'll do it." Yuuki said.

"Great…Just keep this between me and you OK?"

Yuuki found that last statement a bit odd, but didn't question it and nodded. From that point on, the two walked back to Landsol holding hands, only letting go before entering the city.

"It might not be much…but to be able to do this with him…means a lot to me…" Kyarl thought to herself