At first you really didn't like the idea of going out again, specially when you were with the same team of lost puppies just yesterday. You thought of this out loud and Exe reassured you that there was this something called GPS that tracks people and places. You understood little, but you were sure that it would be fine.
You suddenly felt the certain whitehead not walking alongside anymore and found him a few steps back, gaping at a store's window. When you rushed to his side, you heard him mumble, "Negima..."
"Negima?"
Your muttering was loud enough for him ro hear it. He locks gazes with your reddish eyes and says pleadingly, "Ei..." then averts his gaze back to you. "Uhm..."
What's he doing? It was cute. Wait, what? How would you even know if it was cute?
Well, (« Eisen's frequently used word) he was just looking so irresistible with his trying hard pout while still having his expressionless mug on.
"Nani, nani? Doushita no?" You hear the device in your hands let out with Exe's voice, his face prompting for you to face Konoha's direction. So that you did, and it made him realize the albino's gestures. "Oh...you want to eat?"
"But... we don't have any money with us..." You say to Konoha who was looking at you pleadingly. All the more when you said that sentence. "Ei..."
"C'mon, Konoha! Your hunger can wait until Danchou-san meets up with us, right? It's your fault for not eating your fair share this morning!"
"But... Ei... She needed the strawberries...and the pancakes...and the melon bread...and the buttered corn...to be happy."
"Eh?" You muttered it low. That's right... Earlier, he just ate a chunk of a pancake. Surely that's not enough for him or any other person... Not to mention he had a really large appetite, a fact that you discovered when they offered you to dinner yesterday.
He surpressed his hunger just for you to be happy? Why would eating make you happy?
'Strawberries make Konoha happy... I wonder if it would work on Ei too.'
'So do pancakes...caramel syrup...melon bread and buttered corn...' He shoved you with those food with the same reason---it made him happy and he wanted the same to you. In the end you were the one who was full.(#heshoweredyouwithtenderloveandfood)
Why would he want to make you happy? Were you even sad?
Gruuu...
The sidewalk fell on a total silence as Konoha held his stomach. "S-Sorry..." He kept his head down low.
You felt guilt rushing down to your heart. It's not like it was your fault since you never intended nor expected it to be like this, but since earlier he did that... who wouldn't be guilty when an almost complete stranger does that...
Regardless, you went in the store and approached the vendor in an apron without hesitance. She seemed like and old lady in her white hair.
"U-Uhmm---!"
The person turns around partly, facing you sideways, at your gesture.
Your gaze landed upon a pair of half-closed yellow eyes that glared at you with the corner of it; black locks of hair sliding across the bridge of the stranger's nose. These locks cover the eyes completely as a devious smirk was seen spreading on the youth's face.
Youth with black hair and yellow eyes?
When you realize that it was a different person, reality strikes back, with the vendor saying, "Hm? Ojou-chan?"
"A-Ah..."
"E-Eisen-san, what are you doing?" Exe muttered, his zoomed on the screen.
"I was wondering if...y-you... you offer... free... f-free negima!" You bowed eighty degrees as you muttered the last words.
The vendor seemed to look confused on your action. "Eh?" She completely faced you. "Free negima?" You shivered as she echoed your question. She looked at you like you've turned into a clownfish.
"E-Eisen-san! Why are you... We can just look for Kido and the others." Exe says in a low and gentle voice to convince you. "B-But..." You glanced to Konoha-kun who tilted his head slightly.
"Ah... about that, I'm sorry," The shopkeeper frowned. "But apparantly, our promo had just ended. You see, it was an event. If you finish twenty negima in two minutes, you get them all for free..."
"T-Two minutes?! Twenty negima?!" Exe exclaimed, utterly surprised. "U-Unreal!"
"No one has ever completed it. We even extended the challenge for a month. Our negima is really top-class, don't you know? Even if the challenge was crazy, people still tried."
You looked down in disappointment. It was really a shame, since you knew Konoha-kun could do it effortlessly, specially when he's hungry. And now you have no choice but to wait for the others.
Though Konoha seemed still clueless as ever, you really thought he was...
...gruuuuuuuuumblllll...
e.
Your eyes turned to Konoha, and he looked to his left and right, as if looking for whoever made the sound. He soon realized it was his. Exe facepalmed.
"Eh? What was that sound?" Girls from the nearby table murmured. That was the only time the people in the restaurant noticed you. Particularly the six-footer.
"Hey, look at that!"
"Who is he?"
"H-He's cute."
"I know!"
"But his stomach rumbled, didn't it? It was loud! Poor thing..."
You faced the vendor with an apologetic yet disappointed look and bowed, saying sorry for the trouble.
Exe pounded the screen and asked if you were okay. You nodded and turned to Konoha. Immediately, you gaped at him in surprise as he was surrounded by girls.
"Hey, hey, would you like us to treat you?"
"To free negima! In exchange, we'll just have to talk!"
"Talk?" He managed. "Free negima?" Konoha looked to different directions until he finally met your gaze.
"But Ei is..." He paused. You just nodded and hoped the girls didn't notice you. If he was asking for your permission... why would he even...?
"Come on, don't be shy!" The girl gently pulled him to the chair and made him sit.
Exe looked at the table they're in as you made the phone face it. "Looks like we're saved, then! Good for you, Konoha!"
You were also glad that the girls were nice enough to treat such a big stomach. Though somehow... you felt strange. It was as if you just had to be the one to treat him... not does it matter, but still.
"So, what things do you like?"
"...hm..." He swallows the food. You watch him silently while sitting on a chair two tables from them."...food." The girls silently squeal at his innocence. "How about....a girlfriend?"
"Yes, a girlfriend!"
"Girl friend?" He blinks twice and drops the negima stick. The question seemed to make him think for a while. The eyes of about four were on him as they eagerly waited for an answer.
"A girl friend..." He points to your direction. "Ei is my girl friend."
The girls and Exe couldn't believe what he just said. "Ghh, what?!" The cyber boy pounded on the screen. "Konoha-san!"
"So you two are a couple!"
"R-Really?"
"Yes." He nods. "Ei is very kind. She was there when I was lost. She also liked strawberry curry..."
You couldn't believe what he was saying. Moreover, the talisman! It was supposed to hide your prescence! What is he thinking? They might think he's pointing at nothing! Or worse, as per the previous disguise you used, you were an old lady! What would anyone think if they told people they're something with four times older than them---
"I've seen her! She's the girl he was with earlier!" Whispered a girl to another. "Yes. And she is cute. Their eyes are both red!"
What?
They could see you?
But how about the effects of this blue stone hanging below your collarbone? It couldn't be that...
"...Ei seems to be...very soft. Softer than a daifuku...
Konoha... wants to eat Ei." With matching licking of his lips... innocently.
That was all that it took to send them out to a nosebleed. Their faces were burning, and buried on the table right after he finished her 20th negima.
A chance!
You flew from your seat and grabbed Konoha's sleeve gently to outside. "Ei...?" You ran to an empty alley and panted for a while before he asked you again.
"What's wrong?"
"K-Konoha-kun..." You catched your breath finally. "I'm...sorry." You apologized. You knew he was hungry, yet you dared get him out.
Get him out from people who can already see you.
What was that? About your appearance... wasn't there any more concealment? Is the talisman broken? What should you do? You're still in public. If they can find out... if you accidentally lost control... they might find you.
The monsters your parents told you about might find you.
"Eh? She's not?" He talks to the person in the handheld device he carried.
"Of course!" You can hear Exe"s voice. "A girlfriend and a girl friend are different! Wait. They sound the same...! Bwnbvgh."
"So... Ei is not a girl? I like Ei so... she must be food?"
"No no no no!" The loudspeaker turned into a louderspeaker. Or louderspeakerer.
"Eisen-san is not food! Anyways, a girl friend is treated differently from a girlfriend! Ugh this is useless..." Exe sighs.
"Then...if not food... is Ei a boy frie---"
"Don't even!"
"I'm sorry..." He bows his head down and glances at you.
You were oblivious of their conversation right now, thinking of how to escape this situation. You just had to control yourself so your energy won't come out...but you couldn't calm down. How can you calm down?
"Ei..." Konoha's voice was in front of you. As in, in front. Really close. "Are you okay?"
Oh this cute little clueless whitehead... "I-I-I'm fine---"
"Your cheeks are pink... just like a daifuku that's about to squeeze out strawberry syrup..." His eyes were sparkling. Although his voice was still in monotone, it had a hint of eagerness.
Does that mean he's still hungry?! "It looks... really sweet..." He inched closer with every word.
"Konoha couldn't hold in anymore..." What?!
He gently pulled you closer to him. I-It can't be that--- "Itadakimasu."
You felt something wet being pressed on your left cheek. You felt shivers down to your every strand of hair as his lips made contact with your skin. Your hands quickly gripped on his shoulders and you heard someone screaming on his pocket.
He parted slowly, still not releasing you.
While you stood there wide-eyed, in a daze. Konoha looked at you as if you have turned into a tomato, or... "Ei? More strawberry seems to be getting out..." He leans over again.
You immediately push him away. "W-W-W-Wait K-K-Konoha, E-Eisen doesn't taste like strawberry!!"
"But... Ei does." He lowers his head, as if disappointed. "I can still give you some if you want---" He was leaning closer, but aimed not at your cheek! What was he doing?!
"N-N-N-No!"
Both of you froze when a red light flashed from your necklace. Your gazes flew to the item and it soon toned down to a vigorous blue, as if it was... replenished?
Did you release abstract energy? Wait... was that the reason you looked like a daifuku to Konoha that he couldn't hold it in anymore even if he wasn't hungry?! And the reason you tasted like one?!
"Ei...?"
But he could still see you. Not only him... The Dan still saw you in your true form. You realized it just now.
You realized just now... that they were after all trustworthy. No one could see and understand a red-eyed but a red-eyed himself.
And this naturally red-eyed person in front of you... is the reason why you realeased abtract energy that replenished the talisman. It was magic.
"Mmmm! Mmmm!!!" His pocket was screaming. He quickly took it out and the voice stopped.
"Finally you let me out!" It was Exe. "Danchou is waiting for us two blocks from here! Let's go, Konoha-san, and Eisen Goshoujin-sama!"
That's good. You wouldn't know how to handle more of heat face dazes...
"Let's go, Ei." He held your hand protectively while plastering on his face a smile of a newly born angel... just like that time when you were lost...
You just said that you had enough of dazes did you not...
.
.... ---- * ---- ....
11/20/14