"By the way, Lucy." – he started gaining the attention of the only girl in the room who takes a drink of her water.
"Have you met with any of my brothers before coming here?"
The girl immediately sulks again, remembering what happened before she came to the hospital; she could not forget how that Toshiro guy flirts with her quite broadly. The two men are overcome by confusion, written on both faces. They can't comprehend the cause of this, sulking antics of the blonde girl in front of them.
"I only met with Subaru, so I drove to Meiji University. Let's just say my travels to get to you here were much more pleasant than my travels to Subaru."
"What happened? Did someone cause you trouble at the university?" – Masaomi scrunches up his eyebrows as Akito munches on his sandwich, watching the scene unfold in front of him in curiosity. She tilted her head, tapping on her chin as she responded to his question.
"I was crowded most of the time, many wanted my number, many asked me out, many wanted to take pictures with me, or they tried being bold. But thankfully one of the securities walked by and drove them off."
"Men are dogs nowadays." – Akito muttered, leaning on his arm looking at the girl who giggles sounding like angelic bells to his ears.
"Don't spout dogs in the same line as men, Akito-san. Dogs are more loyal, loveable, cute, adorable, and faithful than some men nowadays. So, don't lump them with those species called men." – Lucy said sternly and seriously.
"I accept some men, but I disagree with most of them." – she continues
The three casually talked for a while as Akito couldn't help but wanted to get to know the blonde more. Eventually, she gave him a bag of chocolate for becoming a new friend, much to his amusement. The blonde was just so interesting for him, learning about her likes and dislikes with her hobbies.
"Well, this should be my time to go. I need to make a quick stop to Natsume at his company and then get home to prepare for tomorrow." – Lucy said to them, getting up.
"That's right, you are going to Akane Beach tomorrow with your friend, make sure to call any of us brothers if something goes wrong. Do you need me to show you out?"
"No, I remember my way here so you can go back to work." – Lucy smiles, walking to the door before waving to the two men who also wave back to the angelic blonde girl.
"Bye-bye~ and nice to meet you again Akito-san."
In the living room at the Asahina residence, Happy is sulking and whining about Lucy taking so long at her short delivery job at giving Valentine's chocolates. He is sitting with the others as he keeps complaining and missing his partner who is barely home this week.
"Lushiee~ is taking way too long, when will she come back home?"
"She did say that there were errands she needed to attend before she left." – Julie replies
"Lu-chan did say she will be back as soon as possible...she also asked me to give this to you." – Ema said, approaching Happy who is sulking in the corner with mushrooms sprouting in his little dark corner.
Happy's mouth instantly waters as he sees the box open with a large fish tied with a blue ribbon. His eyes are sparkling with excitement as he whiffs the smell of such delicious and well-cooked fish that is waiting to be eaten.
"UWAAA IT'S A FISH."
'I need to thank Lushiee later. ' - Happy thought as he munches on the fish, his mind wanders in his fish world, minding his own business and not complaining or grumbling anymore about Lucy being late and not being at home.
At Lucy, she reached her second destination, which was a large building and extravagant for a company. Introducing herself to the head desk, they only just mentioned that Natsume was at his home on an early leave. She quickly went to that destination, his apartment, due to the help of the employees. Reaching the right place and shocking the man, she gave him the chocolates and told him the reason for coming, he immediately understood where she came from...
"So, you're the one creating the games, little Ema likes to play." – Lucy tilted her head, joining him as he played games on the couch eating the chocolate Lucy gave him.
"My company is the one to play it, have you played any of them before?" – he questions pausing the game to plop another chocolate in his mouth as it melts smoothly on his tongue and the sweetness envelops his tasting bud that he could not help but moan silently.
"These strawberry chocolates are too good to be true."
"Arigatou and I have a couple of shooting games with little Ema when she taught me how to play."
"You don't have things like this back in your old world." – he raised a brow as she shook her head.
"We created this new game, if you want to try it."
She immediately sparkled with bubbles popping around her.
"Can I?!"
He chuckles and nods his head, getting up to change the game of the system, then gives her the controller. Lucy is hugging a pillow and has gotten comfortable in her position as she waits for the game to get started. His cats Azusa and Tsubaki got tired after playing and liking the blonde for quite some time and passed out on his bed. To make things more interesting with the game, he turned off the lights and closed the curtains, reclaiming his seat next to the blonde.
"This is a horror game." – he merely said as the girl turns to him and gapes, she shakingly nodded then turns back her attention to the game and proceeded through it. Resembling an escape game in a house, Lucy's eyes frantically look around as she looks for clues. Once she opens the door to one of the rooms, she was met with a jump scare and she shrieked loudly, jumping onto Natsume like a cat holding onto him for dear life.
"E-Eh" – he was blushing furiously as he was sitting up and glanced to the left to see Lucy clinging around his neck, eyes closed tightly as she was trembling and shaking in fear.
"The monster is gone now." – She blinks open her eyes, glancing at their position, attempting to calmly pull away and let go of her tight clutches on Natsume's neck and clothes.
"Gomen..."
"It's fine, are you sure you want to keep playing? The game is like this." – Natsume said as the trembling girl thought about it for a second.
"I like challenges, plus I said that I would play the game, I can do this!" – she cheers, but she can't help but shake in fear, she stops when she felt herself being picked up and placed onto something soft and warm. Gaining the situation, she was placed onto Natsume's lap, with her back against his chest, as a blanket is wrapped around them. His arms securely wrapped around her waist to help her at least calm down from the fright she experienced earlier from the game.
"Gomen, I thought this would be better if you wanted to keep playing the game." – he said as Lucy glanced back at him beaming with gratefulness.
"I see, Arigatou Natsume." – time stop as they merely looked at each other in the eye.
As if nothing else was around, completely ignoring the game for a second, she notices how Natsume is inching closer, realizing what is happening, she moves her face to the left, missing his lips from her lips as it meets her left cheek. This moves shock, Natsume then suddenly realizing what he has done, he blushes furiously, then stammers to find some excuses. When he pulls away from her cheek, he is too flustered, shoving his face in the crook of her neck so she can look forward and not look at his face.
"Take that as a thank you for the chocolates since I didn't get you anything in return..." – he whispers as his arms tightened around her waist in embarrassment.
"Natsume, don't confuse your feelings for little Ema towards your physical attraction to me. I notice all of you, brothers, are somehow attracted to me because of my looks, but I know all of you have feelings for our little Ema. Just because you believe you don't have any kind of chances because of the age gap, you are already giving up, and my arrival causes certain unnecessary attraction which gives you an excuse to try at forgetting your feeling for little Ema. Don't give up Natsume, all of you have equal chances."
"But how can one of us be together with her when she is our little step-sister?"
"I'll talk to Rintarou, Miwa, and Ema about it if she falls in love with you or one of your brothers."
"Thank you and I'm sorry about that, I don't know what I was thinking. Just think of it as a thank you gift for the chocolates." – he mutters.
She chuckles and bites her lips, returning to the game, time passed as they finally got over their blushing and sincere times to focus on the horror game. There were more jump scares along the way, but in the end, she was able to accomplish the game even if it was hard. Considering she is good at being smart, Lucy was able to figure out the game quickly, after gaining all the clues and found secret passageways, shocking the creator of the game. Seeing the sun is going down, she said her farewells to Natsume and returns home carrying two boxes of chocolates and a bouquet of red roses.
Today was too tiring, Lucy sighs to herself, walking into the living room and already being greeted by everyone else who is at home.
"Welcome home, Lu-chan / Lucy." – the others greeted as Lucy nodded her head and replied 'I'm home'.
"What took you so long, Lushiee~." – Happy said flying around Lucy
"And what are in those boxes you are carrying?"
"Beautiful flowers..." – Iori mutters, staring at the bouquet in her arms making Lucy beam at him happily.
"It was something I got from my dear spirit."
"Those are chocolates that she got from the others at school." – Yuusuke-Kun answers Happy's questions towards Lucy.
"That many chocolates?!" – Kaname questions gawking at the boxes.
"When we entered the classroom, we were all shocked when we met with Lu-chan's desk being overflowed with mountains of gifts." – Little Ema giggles mischievously as Lucy sulked at the sudden remembrance of that certain embarrassing memory earlier this morning.