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“It’s hot…” Kuro complained as he lay on the floor in his cat form.
“You can’t complain! You’re not even doing anything!” Mahiru yelled. “You’re just lying there playing games!”
“You’re not doing anything either,” Kuro pointed out.
“Good point,” Mahiru said from his position of sitting next to a fan he had set up to blow on his face. Mahiru, Kuro, and Misono were all sitting in a room together at the hotel that Tetsu and Hugh worked at. Snow Lily, Licht, and Hyde were all doing their own thing somewhere. Tetsu and Hugh were at the front of the hotel, welcoming anyone who came by. But with how hot it was today, no one even wanted to leave home. It was ninety outside degrees at least. And the pools and waterparks were too far away, no one would survive the walk there, even though it was a cloudy day that allowed the vampires to go outside. Mahiru got up. “Kuro, I’m going to go get some lunch, do you want anything?”
“No, but I’ll still come,” Kuro said as he stood up and ran over to Mahiru, quickly climbing up the boy’s arm and laying on the top of his head.
Mahiru laughed and gently stroked Kuro’s head. He walked out of the room before turning around again and sticking his head into the room. “Did you want anything Misono?”
Misono shook his head. “No thank you.”
Mahiru shrugged and left the room again. He got to the small kitchen (The ‘kitchen’ was actually a small pantry with some snacks, a mini fridge, a stove, and a microwave oven) that Tetsu and Hugh had worked to install and looked in the small pantry that they kept a few snacks in. “Ramen. Get the ramen,” Kuro said from his perch on Mahiru’s head.
Mahiru grabbed a pack of ramen for his servamp, and some crackers for himself. Mahiru stood up again. “Alright, now to make the ramen.”
“Tell me when it’s done, I’m gonna take a nap,” Kuro said.
“Alright.” Mahiru turned around and came face-to-face with Lily. He yelped in surprise.
Lily laughed slightly. “Sorry to scare you. I overheard you and Onii-chan’s conversation, I can make the ramen if you want. You can take some time off and do what you want,” Lily said.
“Oh, are you sure?” Mahiru asked.
Lily smiled. “Of course.”
Mahiru nodded. “Thanks Lily,” He handed the pack of instant noodles to the servamp of lust. “I’ll be in the back room with Kuro and Mahiru.”
“All right, I’ll come get you when the noodles are done.” Without another word, Lily turned to the stove and turned it on, then grabbed a pan and left to go fill it with water.
Mahiru watched and then went back to the back room.
“Lunch!” Lily called as he came into the room.
“Yay! Ramen!” Kuro said from his laying position on the floor with his games.
Lily put the ramen down next to Kuro and handed Misono a sandwich.
“I thought you said you didn’t want anything, Misono,” Mahiru pointed out.
“I don’t, but Lily always gets me something anyway,” Misono said, reluctantly taking the sandwich.
“Because if I didn’t, Misono would never eat,” Lily explained.
Mahiru smiled. Lily really was the mother hen to Misono. And in the entire group of eves and servamps. “The weather’s so hot today,” Misono complained.
“It really is… Maybe I should strip to cool off…” Lily mused.
“Don’t strip!”
Mahiru laughed slightly. “How about instead I’ll just get us all some ice water?”
“Alright, thanks Mahiru,” Lily said.
Just then Mahiru and his friends heard Tetsu yell from the front, “What are you two doing here?!” Everyone looked at each other and got up to go run to the front.
When they got to the front, they saw two vampires that they never expected to see in the hotel they stayed at. “Belkia and Tsubaki!” Kuro exclaimed.
“Look, we’re not here to fight, so please, hear me out before you do anything,” Tsubaki said quickly, before anyone else could say anything.
“What’s wrong with your subclass?” Lily asked.
When Mahiru took a closer look at Belkia, he noticed that the pink-haired vampire seemed a bit pale. And certainly, less energetic, but they were both subtle enough changes that Mahiru was impressed Lily managed to notice something off with Belkia so quickly.
“That’s what I was going to say, I don’t know,” Tsubaki admitted.
Kuro came over to Belkia and poked him. “What’s wrong with you?” He asked.
Belkia swatted at Kuro’s hand. “Cold, most likely.”
“Vampires can get sick?!” Mahiru exclaimed.
“We may be vampires, but we’re still people,” Kuro said.
“That contradicts itself…” Mahiru muttered.
Tsubaki laughed hysterically for a minute before abruptly stopping. “Not interesting at all,” He said.
“Alright, what were you originally going to say, because I know you didn’t come here just to say you don’t know what’s up with your subclass,” Tetsu said.
“I want to know if we can stay here for a bit. The apartment we usually stayed at has no air conditioning, and we have to share it with three others of my subclasses, which quickly gets crowded,” Tsubaki explained. “We’ll pay full price.”
“Well hate to say it, but we don’t have much air conditioning either, and we have a bigger group,” Tetsu said. “We have a few fans we’ve been using for air conditioning, but that’s it.”
“Just let us stay, fans are better than nothing,” Tsubaki asked again.
“Besides, the walk to our usual hotel is so far away… and in this heat we’ll surely die,” Belkia added.
Mahiru turned to Tsubaki. “Is he always this overdramatic?”
Tsubaki nodded.
Tetsu sighed. “Fine, the two of you can stay if you’re that desperate, let me just set a few ground rules. One, neither of you are allowed to start fights, not with Kuro, not with Mahiru, not with anyone. Two—this one is mainly for Belkia—no. Skewering. Anybody. If I feel there’s a need to add more rules I’ll tell you,”
A thought occurred to Mahiru. “Hang on! Are all of Tsubaki’s subclasses coming?!”
Tsubaki shook his head. “Belkia and I will be the only ones here.”
That’s relieving… Mahiru thought to himself.
“Do you care if you share a room?” Tetsu asked.
Tsubaki shook his head. “We can share.”
“Alright, follow me, I’ll show you where you can stay then,” Tetsu said, leading the two to a room.
Mahiru watched them leave and then turned to Kuro. “Well, this day took a turn for the unexpected,” He said with a smile.
“Yeah, who would’ve guessed that our youngest brother and his subclass would show up?” an energetic voice said from behind Mahiru and Kuro.
The two turned around to see Lawless—Hyde—of greed standing behind them. His lip was bleeding. “Hyde, did you get in another fight with Licht?” Mahiru asked.
“Yeah, me and Angel-Chan had another fight. How’d you know?” Hyde asked.
“Your lip, it’s bleeding,” Mahiru said.
Hyde reached up and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I should probably go wipe my mouth off with a wet cloth or something in the bathroom. Bye!” With a wave over his shoulder, Hyde left the room.
“I will never understand that guy…” Mahiru said. “Sorry Kuro, I know he’s your brother.”
“It’s fine. He’s too energetic for my liking. Anyway, I’m gonna go eat my lunch now.”
“Alright, so dinner didn’t turn out the way I originally wanted,” Mahiru said as he poked his head into the room where everyone was going to have dinner. “So instead, we’re just having shrimp tempura for dinner. A lot of it. And we also have saltine crackers for anyone who wants it,” Mahiru went back into the kitchen and grabbed a pack of crackers in one hand, and a plate with three shrimp tempura rolls in the other hand.
So far, the day had been uneventful apart from Licht and Hyde’s usual fights and outbursts. Belkia and Tsubaki had mainly stayed in their room all day, except occasionally when one of them would come out to get a drink or a snack. Sometimes it was easy to forget that they were even here. Although, Mahiru definitely believed that what Belkia had said about having a cold was true, in the short moments he had seen the vampire, he seemed low-energy—which was nothing like the Belkia that Mahiru had fought in the past—and Tsubaki had come down once or twice for a small snack, Belkia hadn’t. and even is Tsubaki had shared it with his subclass, when he brought whatever, he had taken to their room back down, there was still a decent amount left, so either Belkia hadn’t eaten any, or he hadn’t eaten much. Mahiru was glad he didn’t mind being around people when they were sick. He set the plate down on the small table and sat down next to Kuro, Lily sitting across from them, next to Misono a few moments later—Lily had helped Mahiru with dinner. “So… what happened to mess up dinner?” Hyde asked.
“Lily burned it,” Mahiru said as he picked up his chopsticks and took a piece of sushi—there wasn’t a need to be formal right now.
“I must admit, I left the ramen on the stove and then got distracted, so now we only have the tempura,” Lily admitted with a small chuckle.
Misono groaned. “Come on, Lily! Seriously?!”
“It isn’t that big of a deal!” Mahiru said quickly. He put a piece of sushi on Misono’s plate. “ Here, have some sushi! Ittadakimasu!”
“Ittadakimasu!” Everyone echoed.
Tsubaki and Kuro both reached for the same piece of sushi. “You can have it, Onii-chan,” Tsubaki said as he moved his chopsticks away and grabbed a different piece.
Kuro froze and looked in surprise at Tsubaki.
Tsubaki laughed. “Not interesting at all,” He said when he stopped laughing.
“What’s with your sudden change of attitude?” Kuro asked. “Why aren’t you trying to fight me for it?”
“There was no fighting rule that was set, so if we aren’t fighting, there isn’t a reason to be rude,” Tsubaki explained. “But if you would like to fight, then we can arrange a date after dinner.”
Kuro didn’t respond, but instead just ate his piece of sushi and took another from the plate.
Mahiru noticed that Belkia wasn’t taking anything for himself. He took a piece of sushi and put it on Belkia’s plate. “Here, you should eat something too,” Mahiru said with a smile.
Belkia looked at Mahiru. “I’m not very hungry,” Belkia said as he turned his plate, so the sushi was towards Mahiru instead of himself.
“Mahiru is right though Belkia, you should eat something,” Tsubaki said as he took another piece of sushi for himself.
That got Belkia’s attention. Without any more complaints he picked up the piece of sushi on his plate and put it in his mouth. “This is good sushi,” Belkia said after he finished chewing.
Mahiru smiled. “I’m glad you like it! I made it myself. You can have more if you want.”
Belkia took another piece and shot a quick glance at Tsubaki.
Tsubaki chuckled. “You can have that one Belkia, I can get another,” He turned to Mahiru. “Belkia is right though, you make good sushi.”
“I tell him that, but he never believes me,” Kuro said.
“Of course, I don’t! Because usually you’d still rather have ramen then sushi!” Mahiru said. “But I guess if it’s really good then I’ll see about making it again.”
“Hang on! I’ve barely gotten any of it! How can you keep it away from me, the mightiest of all Servamps?!” Hugh cried from next to Tetsu.
Tetsu sighed and grabbed a piece of sushi for his servamp. “Take it.”
“Ha-ha! Yes, obey and worship me you worthless humans!” Hugh yelled.
“And I thought Belkia could get excited…” Tsubaki said as he watched the interaction.
“Yeah, Old Child’s a bit different. And I can confirm that Angel-Chan agrees,” Hyde said.
“I can speak for myself,” Licht muttered.
“But what if you got all shy again and messed up your opinion in front of everyone? I’m just helping Angel-Chan!” Hyde said, clearly trying to aggravate Licht.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! And go die!” Licht yelled as he hit Hyde.
Tsubaki looked at Tetsu with a look that clearly said, ‘is this what it’s usually like around here?’.
Tetsu nodded.
“Still wanna stay?” Lily asked with a laugh.
“It’s still better than the hotel,” Belkia said.
The rest of dinner was normal—or, as normal as you can get with a bunch of vampires and their masters. Mahiru went back to his room with Kuro after making some idle conversation with Tsubaki to help ease the tension between everyone. The day hat started to cool down a bit, so Mahiru closed the small window in the room he and Kuro shared. Mahiru crawled into the futon he slept in. “You’re going to sleep already?” Kuro asked from the corner of the room where he was currently sitting and playing gamed.
“Yeah, I’m exhausted,” Mahiru said. “Especially from Belkia.” As the day went on the pink-haired vampire had started to act slightly more energetic, so Mahiru assumed that maybe it was just the heat that was making Belkia feel sick. Although he still didn’t eat much. And was he less energetic than usual, or am I just looking for any small problem? Mahiru thought to himself.
Kuro made a small noise of acknowledgement but didn’t make any other reply. Mahiru stared at the ceiling and closed his eyes. He heard the sounds from Kuro’s game turn off. There was a slight pause before he felt Kuro jump up onto his chest as a cat and curl up into a ball. Mahiru smiled. He had always liked it when Kuro slept by him, it showed that the vampire cared, even if he was a lazy N.E.E.T.
That morning Mahiru woke up and stretched as he sat up. He felt Kuro fall off of his chest. He had forgotten that Kuro was there. “Nyaaa… that hurt, be more gentle next time you wake me up,” Kuro complained sleepily.
“Sorry Kuro… I forgot you were there,” Mahiru said sheepishly. He picked up Kuro and put the cat on his head, where he knew Kuro would fall asleep again. “Come on, let’s go get some breakfast.”
When Mahiru got to the kitchen he smelled pancakes. “Pancakes and rice?” Mahiru asked Lily confusedly. “Don’t get me wrong, I love your rice, but… with pancakes?”
Lily laughed. “The rice is just for later, I just figured I’d save time by cooking them both at the same time.”
“Oh, okay, that makes more sense,” Mahiru said, feeling stupid. Without another word, he slipped out into the living room to avoid farther embarrassment. Licht, Hyde, Misono, and Tsubaki were all there already. Misono and Tsubaki were playing cards against each other, and Licht looked like he was just trying to ignore Hyde as much as possible. “Good morning!” Mahiru called as he came into the room. He came over and sat down on the couch between the two chairs that Tsubaki and Misono were sitting in. They were both staring intently at their cards, and neither one of them was speaking while they played. They were serious. “How do you guys know what the other one wants to do with their card?” Kuro asked from Mahiru’s head.
“It’s a game of war. There’s no choice as to what you do,” Misono said in a distracted voice.
Kuro stayed quiet and Mahiru laughed slightly. He continued to watch the game in silence.
Fifteen minutes later the game was still going on. How are they still going? Mahiru thought to himself. Although the answer came from watching. Anytime someone would start to lose, they would then win a war that would give them good cards from the other. Right now, Tsubaki was winning, so Misono was due to win a war soon. Licht had sat down next to Mahiru and Hyde was leaning against the back of the couch, watching the game with him. They heard a door slide open from down the hallway. Most likely Belkia, the vampire had either slept in today, or decided to stay in his room. “I think that’s Belkia, so I suppose we can leave now,” Tsubaki said.
“You don’t have to leave just yet at least stay for breakfast first,” Lily said as he came into the living room, precariously balancing several plates on his arms. Mahiru jumped up and took some of the plates from Lily, and handed one to Hyde, Licht, Kuro, and so on.
Lily heard Belkia come into the living room and held out a plate to him. “Breakfast!” He said happily.
Belkia shook his head. “Not hungry…” He muttered.
Mahiru did a double take as he looked at Belkia’s appearance. His pink hair was messy, and his face was pale—except for his cheeks, which were nearly as pink as his hair—and on top of that, his eyes looked glassy and tired. Lily noticed at the same time that Mahiru did, but Mahiru reacted first. He got up and dragged Licht out of his seat. He walked over to Belkia, and half dragged, half led him to the couch. Mahiru pushed him down gently. “Stay here. Take it easy, rest.” Mahiru ordered.
Belkia started to protest but stopped and reluctantly put his head in his hands, watching Tsubaki and Misono’s game, although both of them were focused on Belkia now. Although, their attention went back to the game as Misono won a war and got two aces from Tsubaki. “I guess you two will be staying now that Belkia’s sick?” Lily asked.
“If that’s alright, then yes, I suppose so,” Tsubaki said.
“I’m not sick…” Belkia muttered tiredly. “Just a cold…”
“That’s still being sick,” Hyde said. “And I think this has gone past ‘just a cold’ by now.”
“I’ll go find Tetsu and tell him that you two are staying longer.” Mahiru ran out of the room to go find Tetsu and tell him. As expected, Tetsu let them stay.
When Mahiru came back he saw Belkia had switched to laying down on his stomach on the couch.
Lily came over and put a bowl on the small side-table next to the couch. “In case you get sick,” Lily said.
Belkia nodded slightly and muttered something incoherent, and while Mahiru didn’t say anything, He personally thought that Belkia would need it sometime, he looked terrible. Tsubaki was sitting in the same seat as earlier, but he and Misono had stopped playing war, and now Tsubaki’s attention was focused on his subclass. Mahiru came over to Tsubaki and stood behind the chair, tapping his shoulder gently. Tsubaki looked up at Mahiru. “Who won the game of war? You or Misono?” Mahiru asked.
“Misono. I surrendered after you left, I couldn’t focus on the game anymore,” Tsubaki said. “I was winning too, so I wish it could’ve kept going.” The second part was said more as a thought accidentally said aloud then something that he was telling Mahiru.
“Oh,” Mahiru said, not really able to come up with an answer.
Lily put a plate next to the bowl on the side-table. “Belkia.”
The magician looked up when he heard his name.
Lily gestured to the plate with two pancakes on it. “Even if you’re not hungry, you should still eat something.”
“Don’t try to resist him,” Misono said from the corner of the room. “Anytime I get sick he decides to play nurse, so I can tell you now, that he won’t give up, and you’ll probably have an easier time eating it yourself then when Lily’s trying to shove it down your throat.”
Belkia seemed to dislike that idea, because he sat up and took the plate and fork and started to eat.
Lily laughed and walked over to Misono.
“Do we know just what’s wrong with him?” Mahiru asked Tsubaki. “Belkia, not Lily.”
“Fever,” Tsubaki said.
When Tsubaki didn’t continue Mahiru asked him, “Is that all?”
Tsubaki nodded.
Mahiru didn’t reply, but instead just walked over to the chair where Misono had been sitting previously and sat down there. Mahiru watched Belkia. Belkia had finished one pancake and had started on the second one by now. He put the plate and fork down on the side table though after eating a fourth of it. Belkia laid back down on his back reached up with one hand to move his hair out of his face.
Mahiru looked around and saw Misono reading in his chair in the corner, with Lily standing by him, reading over Misono’s shoulder. Hyde was standing over by the window, looking out it, but not standing in the sun. He didn’t know where Tetsu and Hugh or Licht was though. Kuro was still perched on Mahiru’s head. Mahiru walked over to the bookshelf and skimmed through the different titles. He hadn’t heard of any of these, and they were mostly American books instead of manga. Eventually Mahiru just chose a random manga book and walked back over to the seat he was sitting in before to read his book.
Mahiru was almost done the manga when he heard Belkia coughing. He looked up and saw the pink-haired vampire sit up. Belkia gagged slightly and clenched his jaw.
Lily recognized the sound and immediately snapped into action, walked over to the couch, and held the bowl out to Belkia.
Belkia hung his head over the bowl and threw up the pancakes he had just eaten. Hyde turned into a hedgehog and quickly left the room. Maybe to find Tetsu. Mahiru and Tsubaki exchanged glances. Neither of them knew what to do. Misono was in his chair, trying his hardest to keep his attention on his book. “Was it maybe my sushi yesterday?” Mahiru asked Tsubaki. “Does Belkia have any allergies?”
Tsubaki shook his head. “He’s had shrimp tempura before and he was fine, and he doesn’t have any food allergies—that I know of at least. And no one else got sick from the sushi.”
“But then why did he suddenly get worse, he seemed to be better last night,” Mahiru said.
Tsubaki shrugged.
Lily continued to hold the bowl under Belkia’s face with one hand and used his other hand to hold Belkia’s hair—which had come out of its pitiful ponytail—out of his face with the other.
After a minute Belkia started dry heaving. After Belkia stopped, Lily continued to hold the bowl near Belkia for another minute or two, Mahiru guessed that he had learned the hard way with Misono to do that. After Lily felt comfortable with moving the bowl away from Belkia he let go of the magician’s hair and walked out of the room.
When he returned, he set the now emptied bowl on the side table. Belkia was laying down on his back again. Lily leaned over and felt Belkia’s forehead.
Belkia watched Lily carefully.
“Your fever definitely went up,” Lily mused to himself as he moved his hand away.
Belkia didn’t respond but instead made a non-committal sound.
“I was going to say I was going to go get some crackers or something for a snack, but I don’t really feel all that hungry anymore…” Mahiru said.
Tsubaki nodded in agreement.
“I’m gonna go. I should find Hyde,” Mahiru said as he put Kuro down on the chair and left the room. And also, because the smell of vomit is making me sick, Mahiru thought, but was careful not to say. He looked in the greed pair’s room first, and he was glad he did, because that was where Hyde was. He was back in his human form. “Hey, you disappeared. Why?” Mahiru asked as he entered the room.
Hyde looked up in surprise when he heard Mahiru’s voice. “Oh, I just mean—well… No reason.”
Mahiru came over to Hyde and sat next to him, going for a calmer, more polite approach then he usually did with Kuro. “That’s not an answer. Why did you leave?”
Hyde hesitated before answering. “I don’t like vomit. At all. It makes me… uncomfortable is putting it mildly.”
Mahiru had heard of this before. It was a phobia where one was more effected by vomit than usual. It could be any different level of severity though. Emetophobia, if he remembered correctly. Is that what Hyde has, emetophobia? Mahiru wondered.
“Yeah, that’s it. Not as severe as some people though,” Hyde said, making Mahiru realize that he must have said that last part out loud.
“Well, that’s good to hear at least, although, I would stay out of the living room then, because the smell was even making me sick,” Mahiru said.
Hyde gave a small laugh. “Alright, thanks for the advice,” He said.
Mahiru smiled and got up, leaving Hyde to himself.
When he got back to the living room Tsubaki looked up and shook his head.
Mahiru stopped and gave the vampire a confused look.
Kuro was in his human form playing games. He held a finger up to his mouth, pointed to Belkia, and closed his eyes. Mahiru understood, Belkia was asleep. That explained why Kuro had the sound off on his games. Mahiru nodded and came over to the group quietly. Belkia might be asleep, but he didn’t look peaceful. “Lily gave him medicine for nausea, one of the side effects is that it tires you out,” Kuro explained in a whisper.
Mahiru nodded. He picked up the manga he had left on the chair when Belkia had started throwing up. He had almost finished it, so it would only take a minute or two to read the rest. He sat down on the floor next to the chair Kuro was sitting in and started reading from where he had left off.
Mahiru finished reading and got up to put the manga back on the bookshelf. After he put it away, he came over and tapped Kuro lightly on the shoulder to get the servamp’s attention.
Kuro looked up at Mahiru.
“Do you know where Lily is?” Mahiru whispered.
Kuro shook his head.
“I think he’s in he and Misono’s room,” Tsubaki said.
“Alright, thanks.” Mahiru left the room quietly and made his way to Misono and Lily’s room.
When Mahiru got to their room he slid the door open slightly. “Lily, Misono?”
“Yes, Mahiru?” Lily asked from over by the desk that had been set up in the room.
“I was going to go out to get some groceries, can you think anything we need?” Mahiru asked.
“Actually, I was about to go out myself. I have to stop by the pharmacy so I can get medicine for Belkia. We can go together if you’d like,” Lily said.
Mahiru smiled. “I can pick the medicine for you. You know the most about what to do when someone is sick, so you should stay here in case Belkia needs you. Thanks for offering though.”
“Alright then, thanks Mahiru. Here, I’ll make you a list of what medicine I need you to get,” Lily said. “And while you’re out, could you pick up some more rice?”
Mahiru nodded. “Sure.”
Lily gave Mahiru the list of medicine that they needed and Mahiru left. Before he left, he asked Tetsu if there was anything else they needed. Tetsu couldn’t think of anything, so Mahiru left and made his way to the store. Kuro had decided to stay at the hotel this time, so Mahiru was alone. Mahiru scanned the shelves for the last medicine Lily had wanted. He had found the first two pretty easily, but he couldn’t find the third one. He sighed and walked up to the counter to ask if they had it in stock. “Excuse me?” Mahiru said as he approached the desk.
The girl behind the counter looked up and bowed to Mahiru. “Hello! How can I help you?”
“I was wondering, do you have this medicine in stock? I’m not sure how to pronounce it, sorry,” Mahiru said as he showed the girl the list Lily had written. He pointed to the last medicine. “That one.”
The girl thought for a second. “I’m not sure, but I can check really quick if you give me a minute,” The girl turned to her computer and typed in the name. After a few moments she turned back to Mahiru. “It seems that we’re out of that one right now. If it’s urgent I can check if any other nearby stores, have it.”
Mahiru shook his head. “No, it’s not urgent. Thank you, though,” He said with a smile. “I’ll still take these two though.”
“Alright then,” The girl said as she scanned the two bottles of pills that Mahiru handed her. “Your total is four thousand, eight hundred, and twenty-six yen.”
Mahiru quickly retrieved the money from his wallet and put it on the small tray for the girl to take.
She took the money and handed him the money. “Thank you for your business!” She said as she bowed again.
Mahiru smiled and walked away, he still had to pick up rice. He had decided against getting what he had originally gone out for, he didn’t want to be gone long.
As he walked down the street on his way to the hotel, Mahiru heard someone call his name. It was Ryusei. “Mahiru, how are you?” Ryusei asked.
“Hi Ryusei. I’m pretty good, what about you?” Mahiru said.
“Same, I’ve been struggling with my summer homework though,” Ryusei sighed. “So, what are you doing?”
“Oh, not much. I’m just going to drop off some medicine to a sick friend.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. He was dropping medicine off to Belkia. He didn’t know if the pink-haired vampire was exactly a friend though. And of course, he was staying at the hotel, not just dropping off and leaving again.
“Oh. Well then, I guess I shouldn’t keep you any longer, I’ll see you later!” Ryusei waved and started back to his house.
Mahiru waved and continued back to the hotel. He was walking faster though, he hoped that if he appeared to be in a rush, he could avoid more conversations. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his friends, but he had to get back soon, he had told everyone that he wouldn’t be more than two hours. “Tadaimo! I’m back!” Mahiru called as he entered the hotel. He stopped. He really hoped that Belkia hadn’t been asleep then. Because if he was, he was awake now.
“Welcome back!” Hyde called from the other room. If Hyde was yelling, then Belkia must be awake.
When Mahiru walked into the room, he saw Belkia with his head hung over the bowl, throwing up again.
Lily looked over his shoulder at Mahiru. “You got the medicine, correct?”
“They didn’t have the last one you wrote down, but I got the first two.” Mahiru held out the bag with the pills in it.
Lily sighed. “Figures.”
“Why? Was that one important?” Mahiru asked. He really hoped it wasn’t after he had told the girl that it wasn’t urgent to get it.
“Not exactly. But it’s for nausea, and I think you can see why that would be one we might need,” Lily explained.
“So Belkia can actually eat something?” Mahiru guessed.
“I am never eating anything again…” Belkia choked out before retching again.
Mahiru had to close his eyes. He was starting to understand why Hyde hated vomiting so much. Mahiru couldn’t watch this. Before he closed his eyes though, he saw Tsubaki’s face, he actually looked concerned for his subclass. Mahiru forced himself to open his eyes again. Lily felt Mahiru watching them and turned around again. Lily smiled at Mahiru, but Mahiru didn’t know what type of smile it was. He was impressed that Lily could continue to stand there and hold the bowl under Belkia’s face though, if Mahiru was in Lily’s place, he would have just handed the bowl to Belkia and left. Or he would try to hold it and then drop it after a few seconds. Mahiru wondered if Lily had to do this a lot with Misono. He recalled Lily saying that the boy had a weak body, but Mahiru had never seen the boy do as much as sneeze. Mahiru walked over to the back of the couch. He put the pills down on the side table. “Here,” Mahiru said to Lily.
“Thank you. And it’s fine that you didn’t get the last medicine, I’m sure that someone can go out and buy some cola syrup later,” Lily said.
Mahiru was about to offer to go get it, but he changed his mind. “I’ll ask Hyde if he can go get some,” Mahiru said, knowing that Hyde would take any reason to leave the house.
Lily nodded, but turned his attention back to Belkia as the he started throwing up more of whatever he had eaten while Mahiru was gone. Mahiru left the room to go find Hyde. “Hyde!” Mahiru called as he came into the kitchen.
Hyde jumped at the sound of Mahiru’s voice. He turned around. “Hey! You scared me! Anyway, what was it?”
“Lily wants someone to go out and get cola syrup. I figured that you would want to get out of the house. You can get there as a hedgehog, turn into a human—vampire?—in the store and then return as a hedgehog,” Mahiru said.
“I will take any reason to leave the house, just one problem. You seem to have forgotten how small a hedgehog is,” Hyde said.
“So, just get a small bottle then. Here, I’ll give you the money to buy it.” Mahiru dug through his wallet for a minute and handed Hyde a bit over enough to cover a small bottle of cola syrup.
Hyde took the money and smiled. “Thanks, Mahiru, bye! Tell Angel-Chan that I know he can survive while I’m gone, even though he’ll miss me!”
Mahiru watched as Hyde left. He wasn’t going to tell that to Licht.
Lily came into the kitchen and smiled when he saw Mahiru. It was a tired smile, and Mahiru didn’t blame him. He had been doing a lot recently. “Belkia thankfully stopped throwing up, but kept dry heaving for a bit,” Lily said.
Mahiru grimaced slightly at the thought. “At least in my opinion, that’s worse than actually throwing up. Because it’s just rough and harsh on your throat. And unlike throwing up, you don’t feel any better after.”
Lily thought about this. “I guess I agree in a way,” He said.
“Is there anything I can do to help you? You’ve been the one mainly taking care of Belkia,” Mahiru asked.
“Could you cook the rice you bought? Not all of it, but at least a bit,” Lily said.
Mahru nodded. “I can do that!”
“Thank you Mahiru.” Lily left the room and went back to the living room, most likely to go check on Belkia again.
Mahiru set the plates down on the table for dinner. Dinner was fried rice and chicken. Not much, but good enough. Besides, no one really needed a fancy dinner today. Lily had tried to convince Belkia to eat something but—to no one’s surprise—Belkia had refused to eat anything. Lily hadn’t forced Belkia to eat this time, but instead allowed him to skip dinner as long as he continued to drink water. Belkia hadn’t liked being forced to cooperate, but he also hadn’t felt well enough to argue, so he agreed. “This isn’t as good as your sushi, but this is still really good Mahiru,” Hyde said.
Mahiru smiled. “Thanks, I’ve had a lot of practice making rice.”
“Too bad Belkia won’t have any,” Tsubaki said.
“Yeah, rice is supposed to settle your stomach, isn’t it?” Tetsu asked.
“Yeah, it is,” Kuro agreed. Most of the rest of dinner everyone was talking about Belkia. After dinner Kuro left to go play games, Licht and Hyde went to do something alone in their room, and after that Mahiru started to lose track of where everyone was going and doing. Lily stayed behind though to help Mahiru clean up the kitchen. They made some idle conversation, and then once the room was cleaned up Lily turned to go check up on Belkia. Mahiru grabbed his arm to stop him though. “I’ll go see how Belkia is, you can go to sleep, or, whatever you want to do to take it easy.”
“Oh! Are you sure?” Lily asked, although he sounded relieved to catch a break.
Mahiru nodded “I’m sure.”
“Thank you Mahiru. You’ve done countless things for me recently,” Lily said as he left the room.
Mahiru walked into the living room and saw Belkia laying on his side, facing the back of the couch. “Belkia,” Mahiru said, trying out the name. “Are you awake?”
Belkia groaned. “Now.”
“Now? What do you mean now?” Mahiru asked.
“I mean I’m awake now,” Belkia said, his voice was hoarse.
Mahiru understood that much. “Oh. Sorry. I hadn’t tried to wake you up.”
Belkia muttered something that Mahiru couldn’t understand and then rolled over onto his back carefully.
Mahiru stood behind the couch awkwardly. He didn’t know what to say or do. “Um… are you feeling any better?” Mahiru asked.
“Kinda. I threw up three times while you were at the store earlier, so that probably helped. Can’t say I liked it though,” Belkia said.
Mahiru shuddered. That sounded terrible. Neither Belkia nor Mahiru said anything after that. Mahiru finally decided to break the silence. “Do you want to play a game of war or something?” He asked.
Belkia blinked. “What?”
“Like, the card game. You have to be bored, just lying there with nothing to do. I have a deck of cards we can play with,” Mahiru explained quickly. “If you don’t want to, or you’re not feeling up to it though, then that’s fine too!”
Belkia just looked at Mahiru for a second before he sat up. “Sure, it’s better than just sitting here in awkward silence.”
Mahiru nodded and ran to his room to get his deck of cards. When Mahiru got back to the living room he moved one of the chairs across from the couch so he would be able to play better. He sat down and started dealing the cards back and forth. “Oh, before we start, I’m adding a rule to this game. We’re keeping the joker cards in, and they’re the new aces. Nothing can beat them,” Mahiru said after he finished dealing the cards.
“But isn’t the what the ace cards ae for?” Belkia asked.
Mahiru smiled. “Yeah, but I started playing this way when me and Kuro kept losing the joker cards, so that’s how I always play now.”
“But if normal people don’t even play with the jokers, then why does it matter if you lose them or not?” Belkia asked.
Mahiru didn’t have an answer for this, but he immediately came up with something. “Because, then when you lose, there’s two less cards to use when you force the winner to play fifty-two card pick-up.”
Belkia shook his head. “Whatever, let’s just play.”
Mahiru nodded and put down his first card. “A joker! Ha!”
Belkia shrugged and put his down. “A two. You just wasted that.”
Mahiru stared. That did not just happen to him.
Belkia laughed. “Take your cards and get your head in the game.”
Mahiru took his cards and played his next card—more in sync with Belkia now.
After the game was over Mahiru took his cards back and started back to his room to get some sleep. Belkia had won the game. “You’re lucky I’m not making you play fifty-two card pick up,” Mahiru said. “You had all too much fun winning so easily.”
Belkia smiled, he knew he had won. “Thank you, thank you, a round of applause for my victory!”
Mahiru rolled his eyes and clapped for a few seconds.
Belkia did a small mock-bow.
Mahiru scoffed. “Are you going to sleep out here, or with Tsubaki?” He asked.
“Out here. I don’t want to give whatever I have to Tsuba-kyun,” Belkia said.
Mahiru nodded, choosing to ignore the nickname that Belkia had used for Tsubaki. Mahiru left the room without another word after that, more than ready to get some sleep. He and Belkia’s game had gone on for a while. Towards the end Belkia seemed to be more like himself, but if it was anything like yesterday, then the pink-haired vampire would wake up worse the next morning.
When he crawled into his futon mattress, he saw that Kuro was already asleep, curled up on top of his futon as a cat. That was kind of disappointing. Mahiru had hoped to talk with his servamp for a bit. Mahiru sighed and rolled onto his side. He fell asleep quickly.
The next morning, Mahiru woke up and crawled out of his futon mattress. He was going to wake Kuro up but decided to change first. He wasn’t going to have Kuro watch him change, and he would feel bad kicking Kuro out of the room so early in the morning. Mahiru quickly changed out of his night clothes and switched into a casual, baggy grey t-shirt, and some dark blue jeans. He didn’t care how terrible and unpresentable it looked. He didn’t plan on going anywhere today. He leaned over and woke Kuro up.
Kuro groaned. “Nyaaa… let me sleep… I’m having the best dream ever… I get to sleep undisturbed for once…”
“You’re dreaming about sleeping?” Mahiru asked.
“Not anymore, but I was,” Kuro said as he opened his eyes and turned into his human form.
Mahiru sighed. “How much do you wanna bet that Belkia’s going to be sick again?”
“He never recovered,” Kuro said.
“You know, I think that Tsubaki actually cares for his subclasses, or at least, for Belkia,” Mahiru said.
“What makes you say that?” Kuro asked.
“Whenever Belkia starts to throw up, Tsubaki always looks worried or concerned. And even when Belkia’s just lying there, Tsubaki always watches him, and he usually doesn’t go far from Belkia,” Mahiru said, explaining what he had noticed.
Kuro thought for a second. “He’s probably just worried that he’ll get whatever virus Belkia has.”
Mahiru sighed. “Fine, believe what you want, but I’m sticking by my belief.”
Kuro shrugged and the two of them left the room together.
“Good morning, Onii-chan!” Hyde greeted as Mahiru and Kuro entered the room.
“Morning,” Tetsu said as he set down two more plates on the table for Mahiru and Kuro.
“Is Belkia any better?” Mahiru asked.
“Not really,” Misono said.
“He woke up vomiting,” Licht added.
“Not listening!” Hyde said.
“Go die! Stupid hedgehog!” Licht yelled as he hit Hyde so hard on the back of the head that the vampire started to choke on his food. Lily came over and hit Hyde on the back until he managed to swallow the egg that he was choking on. “Thanks,” Hyde said when he could talk again.
“No problem. Anyway, I’m going to go give Belkia some breakfast.” Lily picked up a plate and left the room.
“Belkia and I will pay full price for the stay along with some extra money since you had to deal with Belkia while he was sick,” Tsubaki said. Mahiru hadn’t even noticed he was there. “Does Twenty-five thousand yen per night work?”
Tetsu stared. “I don’t think you have that much,” He said. “And even if you did, there’s no need for anything extra.”
“Alright then,” Tsubaki said with a shrug.
Lily came back into the room. “He took breakfast, so that’s good,” Lily said.
Mahiru nodded.
“Yeah, it’s good. Until five minutes later when he throws it all back up,” Kuro said.
Lily sighed. “I know.”
“Can we stop talking about vomit and just eat breakfast?!” Hyde cried.
Misono nodded and took another bite of his eggs.
Lily sat down next to Misono and changed the topic of the conversation to plans for later in summer.
“What series are you reading?” Hyde asked Mahiru. They were in the living room with Belkia. Misono and Tsubaki had just finished another high-tension game of war, and now neither of them were talking to the other and had retreated to their appropriate rooms. The day had been mainly calm, the only thing worth paying attention to being Kuro and Hugh trying to see who could stack more pieces of bread on their head at lunch. Lily had been tired and had decided that sandwiches were good enough for lunch today.
“Um… Kuro Hi no Kitsune,” Mahiru read. It was a short story manga he had found on the bookshelf to read. “And it isn’t a series, it’s a stand-alone short story.”
“Oh. Well, is it any good?” Hyde asked.
Mahiru nodded. “Yeah.” Mahiru would have continued but got cut off as Belkia clamped his hand over his mouth and gagged. Hyde turned into a hedgehog and ran out of the room so fast that Mahiru could barely see him leave. Belkia reached for the bowl but instead gagged again and lurched forward. Belia clenched his jaw and gagged again. Mahiru didn’t know what to do. Belkia leaned over the couch and threw up on the floor.
Mahiru jumped. He didn’t know what to do, so he did the first thing he could think of. “Lily!” Mahiru yelled.
Lily came in immediately. He saw Belkia and came over to the vampire. Lily put the bowl down on the ground next to Belkia.
Belkia grabbed it immediately and held it under his face with one hand, using his other to hold himself up.
Lily turned to Mahiru. “Go bring me the cola syrup. It’s in the kitchen,” Lily commanded.
Mahiru nodded and ran off quickly. He saw the cola syrup on the counter as soon as he came into the room. He grabbed that along with a shot glass made for sake. Mahiru rushed back into the living room and handed Lily the shot glass and cola syrup. Belkia was dry heaving now but hadn’t moved his head from over the bowl.
Mahiru watched Belkia carefully. He felt bad for the pink-haired magician. Mahiru had had the flu several times before, and it was never a fun experience. To add to that, Mahiru had never thrown up as much as Belkia had in the past few days. Belkia dry heaved again before he actually threw up. Mahiru heard footsteps approaching and looked away from Belkia to see Tsubaki coming into the room. He saw Belkia’s condition and surprise and concern flashed in his eyes for a second. Tsubaki came over and stood a few feet away from Belkia.
Lily looked at Tsubaki and shrugged.
Belkia dry-heaved again and managed to catch his breath for a second. He took a few shaky deep breaths.
Lily tapped Belkia’s shoulder gently and held out the shot glass with cola syrup in it. “Drink, it’ll settle your stomach.”
Belkia sat back up a bit, wiped the vomit off of his mouth with his sleeve and took the shot glass from Lily with a shaky hand.
“Do you think you’re done being sick yet or...” Lily trailed off.
Belkia shook his head slightly—which made him stop for a second and clench his jaw in case he got sick again—and took a careful, small sip of the cola syrup. “Probably not,” Belkia said.
“I’ll get you some ice water,” Lily said. He left the room and went back into the kitchen.
Mahiru turned to Tsubaki. “Does he usually throw up this much when he’s sick?” Mahiru asked.
Tsubaki nodded. “Belkia’s always has a weak stomach,” Tsubaki said simply.
Mahiru thought back for a second. “I do actually remember him saying before that he got motion sick really bad…” Mahiru said thoughtfully.
Tsubaki nodded. “It’s true.”
Mahiru was about to say something but he was cut off as Belkia leaned over the side of the couch and threw up again.
Tsubaki must have noticed Mahiru flinch at the sound because he laughed slightly. “Not interesting at all.”
Lily came back into the room and set the ice water down on the coffee table.
Belkia looked up at the sound of the glass being put down. He opened his mouth to say something but instead leaned away as he dry heaved.
Lily sighed. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad that he’s not throwing anything up anymore.”
Mahiru turned to Tsubaki. “You’re sure Belkia doesn’t have any allergies that he could have come in contact with?”
“Not allergic to anything,” Belkia said from the couch.
Mahiru watched in slight disgust as Belkia dry heaved twice more before managing to throw up.
Two hours later, Misono had challenged Tsubaki to a re-match in war, Kuro and Mahiru were competing in a multiplayer racing game, Hugh and Tetsu were out at the store looking for anything that the inn might need to restock on, and Lily, Licht and Hyde were all relaxing in a bath. Mahiru wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about Licht and Hyde being in water together, but he trusted Lily to be able to keep them from drowning each other. And Belkia was just lying on the couch, watching everyone in the living room. The pink-haired vampire had stopped throwing up, but he was still taking small sips of the bit of cola syrup every now and then. Mahiru was surprised that Belkia hadn’t drank it all yet. “Bless you,” Mahiru said as he heard Belkia sneeze from behind him.
Belkia muttered a thanks before he sneezed again.
“Bless you!” Tsubaki and Mahiru said at the same time.
Belkia didn’t respond this time.
Mahiru chuckled and turned back to his game system. Kuro had taken the lead, unsurprisingly.
“Ow!” Belkia yelped as the box of tissues Lily threw hit him in the face.
“Sorry,” Lily apologized.
Belkia put the box of tissues on the side table. “I’m sure you are…” Belkia muttered.
“I am!” Lily insisted.
Belkia made some random mocking noises before getting cut off by a sneeze.
“Serves you right,” Lily said.
Belkia took a tissue from the box and wiped his nose. He quickly sneezed twice more into it again though. Belkia groaned and tossed the tissue into the trash.
Mahiru couldn’t help but smile as he watched the interaction—he and Kuro’s match had ended. Belkia had stopped throwing up as much for now—but Hyde was still cautious about coming into the living room. But he had recently started sneezing. But it seemed kind of random, and Mahiru couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Belkia was allergic to something. If he was, he didn’t seem to be aware of it though. Mahiru was jerked out of his thoughts as Mahiru yelled at Tsubaki. “How did you win again?!”
“It’s just a game of luck,” Tsubaki said simply.
“You idiot! Do you know how much I hate you right now?” Misono said angrily.
“Hey! Don’t talk to Tsuba-kyun like that!” Belkia put in from the couch.
Mahiru smiled again, if Belkia was standing up for Tsubaki then he must be feeling better. It lacked some if his usual energy, but it was still better than nothing. Mahiru felt a stab of guilt though for wishing that Belkia and Tsubaki would leave soon. They hadn’t caused any trouble, and Tsubaki had actually been pretty enjoyable for the most part. Misono was about to snap back at Belkia, but Lily cut in. “When does everyone want dinner, and what do you want for dinner?”
“Soon, and anything edible works,” Misono said immediately.
Mahiru didn’t know what to say, he expected Misono to be pickier about dinner.
“That doesn’t give me enough information…” Lily muttered. “Belkia, Tsubaki?”
“Something that Mahiru made,” Tsubaki said.
Mahiru choked on the water he had taken a sip of. Someone was actually asking for something he made?
Belkia shrugged. “I don’t care.”
Lily sighed and turned to Mahiru. “Well, so far all we have is one request, do you care about making dinner?”
“No, I can make something,” Mahiru got up and grabbed Kuro, who was in his cat form. “Anything you wanted in specific, Tsubaki?”
Tsubaki thought for a second. “Anything works.”
“You have to give me more than that!” Mahiru cried.
“Something with rice than,” Tsubaki said.
“That’s pretty much everything…” Mahiru said. He sighed and started to the kitchen; he would figure it out. He was thinking of making shrimp tempura again, it wouldn’t take long, and everyone seemed to like it.
“Alright! Dinner!” Mahiru called as he came into the living room. He set down three plates with two rolls of tempura on them each. After seeing how fast his sushi had been eaten previously, he had decided to make more this time. Licht came into the living room, dragging Hyde behind him. Tetsu and Hugh came in from the kitchen and sat down on the floor. Misono and Tsubaki sat in the chairs next to the couch, and glared at each other, most likely still over the game of war. They get too involved in that game… Mahiru thought. Mahiru couldn’t help but notice that Hyde was sitting slightly farther away from Belkia then everyone else. Everyone took some sushi for themselves. “So, what are you two going to do when you leave?” Tetsu asked Belkia.
“Trying to get rid of us?” Tsubaki asked.
“No, I’m just curious,” Tetsu replied, taking another piece of sushi.
“Probably just go back to our usual place,” Tsubaki replied.
“Where do you guys stay?” Licht asked.
“In a hotel,” Tsubaki said casually.
“Which one?” Licht pressed.
“As if we’d tell you that,” Tsubaki said.
“Let’s change the subject,” Mahiru said. “Tsubaki, have you ever lost to Mahiru in a match of war?”
Tsubaki smiled. “Never.”
“He’s lying! I’ve beat him plenty of times!” Misono said.
“No, you haven’t. And I’ve been there to witness all of your games,” Belkia said.
“Of course, you’d say that, you’re his subclass!” Misono said.
Mahiru sighed as everyone started to yell. He hadn’t meant to start such a heated argument. Mahiru picked up another piece of sushi and put it in his mouth. Lily started to try and get everyone to calm down, but it wasn’t working very well, no one could even hear him anyway because everyone else had started arguing too. The argument didn’t stay on the subject of war for long, soon it was everyone yelling at someone else about their own subject. Even Kuro was involved. Lily and Mahiru looked at each other. “I guess we get the rest of the food,” Mahiru said.
Lily was about to protest, but instead smiled and took some more sushi.
Mahiru took more for himself and watched the show.
That night, Mahiru couldn’t get to sleep. He didn’t know why. He watched Kuro sleeping soundly in his human form, his chest rising and falling evenly. Mahiru considered going outside to take a bath and relax and see if that would tire him out any. Mahiru eventually decided that he would just get a glass of cold water instead. He knew it wouldn’t help him get to sleep, but he still wanted it.
Mahiru was careful to be quiet when he stepped into the living room. He didn’t want to wake Belkia up, it was probably around two in the morning. Mahiru wanted ice in his water, but knew it would be loud, so he decided against it, settling for simply cold water. He took it out to the living room and looked out the window. The moon was full tonight and cast silvery rays of light down on the surrounding land. It was beautiful. “The moon really makes everything look beautiful tonight, doesn’t it?”
Mahiru whirled around, nearly spilling his water all over himself. “Belkia. I didn’t know you were awake.”
“I just woke up and saw you there. I assumed you were looking at the moon,” Belkia said.
Mahiru nodded. “I was, I couldn’t get to sleep so I came out for some water. I just stopped on my way to my room to look outside,” Mahiru came over and sat in one of the chairs next to the couch. “Are you always awake late?” Mahiru asked Belkia.
“I told you; I just woke up randomly. But yes, usually I am,” Belkia said.
Mahiru smiled. “I’m either up really late, or I fall asleep before my head hits the pillow.” Mahiru stayed up for a while after that, talking quietly with Belkia.
Mahiru stretched as he woke up to the sunlight streaming into his eyes. He was still in the chair next to the couch. Belkia was still asleep. Mahiru smiled when he saw that Belkia looked healthier then he had the past few days. Whether he felt better or not, only time would tell. Mahiru got up and headed to the kitchen. He decided to get a slightly early start on breakfast. It was only fifteen minutes before Lily was usually up and making something, but Mahiru would handle it today.
“Good morning!” Mahiru said to Lily and Misono as they came into the kitchen.
“Mahiru, I could’ve made breakfast,” Lily said.
“It’s ok, I can do it, besides, it’s almost done anyway.” Mahiru had made French toast for breakfast. It probably had a bit too much sugar on it, but that was fine. Mahiru looked up as he heard approaching footsteps. “Belkia! Good morning!” Mahiru said.
“Feeling better?” Lily asked.
“Yeah, I feel pretty much fine now,” Belkia said. “What’re you making Mahiru?”
“French toast. It’s just something simple,” Mahiru said. “And it’s done. Lily, could you go wake everyone up?”
Lily nodded and left the room to go wake up the rest of the group.
“So, now that Belkia’s better, I guess we’ll be leaving,” Tsubaki said. “As promised, we’ll pay the full expense for the stay and any money that we caused anyone to spend.”
“I appreciate that, but there isn’t a need for it,” Tetsu said. “No one else in our group has to pay, and they’ve stayed here longer then the two of you.”
“And as for the second part, it wasn’t that much that anyone ended up spending in the end,” Mahiru put in.
Tsubaki looked at them and smiled his odd smile. “Well thank you,” He said.
“Besides, how could you charge Tsuba-kyun?” Belkia put in. He had all his usual energy back now.
“Very easily,” Hugh said.
Tsubaki laughed. “Not interesting at all.”
“And you guys weren’t even that bad to have here. Neither of you did anything terrible or unbelievable. Which I actually didn’t expect,” Tetsu said.
“Well, if we weren’t that bad, then we’ll come back anytime we need to get away from the rest of my subclass,” Tsubaki said.
“Hang on! He never said that!” Misono cried. He paused and thought for a second. “Actually, I need a war partner, so you can come back whenever you want.”
“Play with Mahiru,” Belkia said.
“What?” Misono asked.
“Play with Mahiru,” Belkia repeated.
Mahiru smiled. “Or with Belkia.”
“What are you two talking about?” Misono asked.
“They’re talking about the card game war,” Licht said.
Misono sighed. “I know that much!”
“Then why did you ask?”
“He wanted a better explanation with more details Angel-Chan,” Hyde said. “Although, it’s both expected, and completely fine if you didn’t understand that.”
“You really have a death wish, don’t you,” Kuro said.
“Angel-Chan couldn’t hurt me if he wanted to, besides I’m immortal,” Hyde said.
Licht reached over for Hyde’s dog chain necklace with his given name on it.
Hyde jumped out of the way with a cry of surprise and Mahiru yelped in surprise as Hyde jumped into him. “Come on Angel-Chan, be nice now!”
Everyone laughed. “Not interesting at all,” Tsubaki said.