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Well, the third one is the expired one. I'm not sure if that's the way the saying goes, but it...
01

Konami-kun

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Well, the third one is the expired one. I'm not sure if that's the way the saying goes, but it doesn't matter.

Well this is my first time posting something on this place, I hope to get it right.

My main language is not English, so this story can contain many grammatical errors, gender errors and others. You are warned.

-------
A sigh of relief escaped her lips, satisfied that she had finally finished the necessary cleaning in the living room of her home. Normally her mother and her sister would clean the room, with her helping if given the opportunity, but with her father being hospitalized due to an incident at work, her mother and sister had had less time to dedicate to housework, being in their busiest place working and studying, and visiting dad whenever they had the chance.

Her brother was the same case, most of the time was spent at school, practicing Kendo or visiting her father in hospital. Nanoha would be lying if she said that she was not bothered by the fact that she was unable to visit her father so often, or that the constant absence of her family did not cause her pain. But she knew there was nothing she could do about it, just shut up and cry silently at the feeling of loneliness and gave up that she was experiencing.

Since the incident, the house had become colder, more desolate, it was as if all the happiness and warmth that her home experienced, one day had suddenly decided to leave, leaving in place only a building where the sadness and cold of loneliness could be felt at every moment.

Her mother and brothers could smile as much as they wanted, they could pretend that everything was fine while they whispered calming words to her, that Dad would recover, that he would return home soon and everything would return to normal. However, Nanoha couldn't be fooled so easily, not when she herself was also trying to put on a mask of happiness, making sure not to show her sadness or how much the absence of her only family affected her. She made sure to wash her face after crying, so that her brothers would not notice the dry traces of tears on her cheeks, she made sure to always sleep after crying, so that her mother would not notice the swelling of her eyes after each cry. She made sure to always put a smile on her face and show a certain amount of joy, so that no one in her family cared about her mild depression.
Nanoha made sure to suffer alone so that no one in her family cares more than they already are. It would be selfish and thoughtless of her to demand attention when her father was the one who needed him most.

Luckily the school was able to provide a temporary escape from her loneliness. Her peers' classes and gossip distracted her enough from her family's current emotional state. Unfortunately that only lasted a few hours before falling back into the cycle.

Today should be just like always, a pitiful day for her, cut off from her family because they had their own affairs to attend to and they would definitely put aside just to keep the youngest girl in the family company, but that was Something that Nanoha refused to do, she would not tell her family about her emotional state as this could cause problems in their daily routines and increase even more pressure on them by "neglecting" the younger member.

Her mother, and her brothers already had enough on his plate with dad at the hospital, she wouldn't add to that anymore.

Luckily for Nanoha today she would not follow the same routine as always. A classmate would visit her to complete a homework that one of her teachers gave the entire class, a history research paper, the subject in question was left to the choice of each team.

Nanoha would lie if she said she wasn't a bit happy with the recent development, basically her teacher had inadvertently given her the perfect opportunity to temporarily forget about her sadness, even if it was only for a few hours until her brothers' arrival. However, she had not forgotten the main reason for this meeting, so she would have to do her best to complete this teamwork perfectly and give a decent exposure to the rest of the class.

Nanoha moved her small eyes around the room, her lilac pupils looking for any trace of dirt and imperfections that she might have overlooked when cleaning, finding none Nanoha slightly puffed out her chest with pride and mentally congratulated herself on a job well done. With the room free of any materials that could ruin her work or slow her down, she could finally devote herself to making snacks and drinks for her partner.

Now that she thought about it, she knew absolutely nothing about the boy she was paired with, the only thing she knew was his name and that it was not very social. Whenever any other child approached him to invite him to play or start a talk about homework or some other topic, the boy simply rejected them or said he was not interested in chatting. Not to mention his strange choice of words in some conversations and the words in a foreign language that he sometimes muttered. Because of that he ended up being labeled by the other children as 'the weirdo in the classroom'.

This last thought made Nanoha frown, a little annoyed at how rude her classmates were when calling another boy that way. Nanoha had never had the opportunity to start a conversation with him, mainly because she had never had a real need to speak to him or had had the opportunity to introduce herself correctly. Sure, she had many opportunities, considering that he was evaded by others as if he were some kind of plague and therefore it would be easy to get close without any real inconvenience.

The more he thought about it, the more Nanoha realized how alone and apart from the others his partner, Sakai Yuudai, was. That was something that bothered her and that she felt that she had to do something to solve it, maybe she could become her friend? If she did, the other children in her classroom might decide to resume their efforts to become friends. She knew perfectly well how painful it is to be alone, and she refused to let another child go through the same experience.

With a determined mind and thinking of ways to get closer to his partner, Nanoha continued preparing the drink intended to quench their thirst when necessary and the snacks ... although the latter were actually cookies bought from a supermarket, but Nanoha was sure of that Sakai would like it, by pure chance she had seen him devour an entire package inside the classroom without being caught by the teacher.

_____
"Please come in Sakai-kun." Nanoha smiled gently as she stepped aside, giving her classmate enough room to pass. He stood in the doorway for a few seconds before finally entering with a conflicted look in his eyes. Maybe he was shy? Nanoha considered that possibility based on her poor social interaction with the other children in his class. "Oh, you can leave your shoes around here." Nanoha said belatedly when she saw him stepping inside with his shoes on, pointing to a place near the door where her own shoes were also. Sakai blinked in confusion, before an expression of understanding appeared on his face, he muttered a few words in that foreign language before complying with the request.
Nanoha guided him deeper right into the living room, at no time did Sakai utter a word and he silently followed her. They reached the living room and Nanoha pointed to the cushions on the floor near the small table where she planned to carry out the project. Sakai wasted no time and sat down, Nanoha decided to take a seat next to him and only then realized the backpack he was carrying.

Nanoha was about to tell him where he could leave he backpack, but was interrupted when Sakai dropped the backpack on the floor and started pulling out some notebooks and pencils and pens.

"I'm already ahead of the investigation." He spoke for first time, sounding a little tired. "I also made a draft of the topics under investigation and some additional notes that we could add. All you have to do is help me choose one of the topics, transcribe half of it on a poster board and memorize your part of the exhibition." He opened one of the notebooks and handed it to her, Nanoha took it and read the large amount of information he had written, something about the conolization of America, there were many terms and information that she did not know, and she did not remember that this would have been so detailed in classes . "For now focus on choosing one of the 4 topics I chose and memorizing as much information as you can. You can transcribe the information tomorrow, I would, but I'm sure the teacher will notice if I do everything on my own."

Nanoha heard it, but she was more focused on reading all the information written in the notebook, the 4 topics chosen by Sakai were diverse and with a lot of information, even so she noticed that there were some parentheses with the words (investigate later) , indicating that the information in the book was incomplete. Still it was enough to make a decent exposure.

But this was not what she was expecting.

If Sakai did all of the investigative work that brought down the teamwork goal, Nanoha couldn't accept that, she was basically doing the simpler part and allowing Sakai to do the rest on his own.

"This, Sakai-kun." She started, a little unsure of how to express her opinion on the matter.

"About the investigation."

"What happens?" He raised a curious eyebrow. "Did you plan to display another topic? If so then no problem, just tell me and I will take care of doing the research and the part that we will present."

"No, it's not about that, it's just ... Could we do the research together?"

She hoped he would accept, letting him do all the work would make her feel a little useless and like she was taking advantage of him. Not to mention that the temporary meetings would then end in 2-3 days, a time too fast considering they had a week to work on the project.

And if that happened then Nanoha would be forced to be home alone again, and that was not something she looked forward to.

"I think it would be faster if I did it." Sakai was quick in his response, his eyes for some reason avoiding her and he almost seemed nervous. "Don't be offended, but I've already worked with other kids and they always end up messing things up for one reason or another. Also, you probably prefer to quickly finish this project and take advantage of your free time."

The idea would sound tempting to any other child, leaving the heavy lifting to their partner and simply memorizing their part of the exhibit so that they could spend the remaining days doing anything else. Unfortunately for Sakai, Nanoha was not any other child, she would not give in easily especially when her main motivation was to spend as much time as possible busy.

"The teacher said that we should work as a team, what you ask me is the opposite of what he ordered."


"It would still be teamwork, as long as all you do is expose your part." Sakai replied quickly. "Besides, I work better alone and surely you prefer to go play with some of your friends or watch television." Sakai began to move his eyes around the room, as if searching for a way to escape. "By the way, where are your parents?"

Nanoha's entire conviction suddenly vanished. "Oh. Umm, mom is working and she won't be here until later." Nanoha started to speak, seeing no reason to hide it, still her words came out with a bit of insecurity. "And my brothers are at school."

Sakai raised an eyebrow. "And your father?"

Nanoha bit her lip at the question, she knew he hadn't done it maliciously, and that he was probably just buying time to think of an excuse to do all the work on his own, but that didn't make the question less painful.

"Dad had an accident at work and is in the hospital." Her words came out a little low, but they were still audible enough for Sakai to hear her.

"Oh I see." Nanoha didn't see him, but she was pretty sure he was grimacing. "So… are you home alone all day?" She nodded slowly and risked looking at him, hoping to find compassion or pity in his gaze. Neighbors gave her mother that kind of look when they found out. Her friends at school and her teachers also gave Nanoha that kind of look. It was normal for people to do it, it was a way of showing that they were sympathetic to some extent with the pain they were going through, Nanoha never saw anything wrong with that action, and she never would, but she would be lying if she said it didn't bother her a bit be looked at the same way every time the subject was mentioned.

So it was a little disconcerting for her to see an expression of confusion and slight annoyance on Sakai's face. Nanoha blinked, confused as to whether she was seeing well or had said something bad that caused that kind of reaction.

Finally Sakai closed his eyes and sighed, the way he did it made him seem resigned to some kind of punishment. "Damn my bleeding heart." He murmured, before opening his green eyes and looking at her. "Well, choose the topic you want and then we can agree on what to do tomorrow."

That… it was too easy, Nanoha hoped he would refuse, not that he would accept so easily, is it because of what she said? Nanoha couldn't help but feel a little pissed about it.

"Why do you make that face?" Sakai asked, genuinely confused.

Nanoha bit her lip, she was very tempted to ask him if he only accepted out of pity for her, but she didn't want to risk angering him if she did. Still, that he simply agreed with her just out of pity felt bad, so then, she asked.

"I don't like the idea of leaving a child as young as you alone, it's not good for self esteem."

Nanoha blinked. "But we are the same age."

Sakai snorted, looking amused for some reason. "Maybe, but I'm more mature mentally." His gaze quickly changed from amused to one of nostalgia, no, that was wrong, it was something more like sadness, as if he was remembering something painful. "Besides, I know how painful it is to be alone." Their words came out in a low voice, if it hadn't been for the absolute silence of being alone the 2 of them at home, Nanoha probably would have missed it.


Nanoha's eyes widened in surprise, suddenly she began to realize something. Sakai was always alone, never in the entire school year had she seen him interact with someone else. He always stayed away from other children, and a few months ago he began to be avoided by children in the same class. Always alone, with no friends to talk to or enjoy his time at school, even when the teachers tried to get him to join the class, Sakai never really tried.

He also suffered alone, perhaps even more than herself.

And the most important of all.

"Besides, I know how painful it is to be alone."

Sakai understood.

Any doubts Nanoha had vanished, her former discomfort and sadness were put aside as she realized the same feeling of loneliness her classmate was going through. It was stupid of her not to have noticed before, to have ignored him when he needed company most.

But not anymore.

"Sakai Yuudai." Nanoha spoke, her lilac eyes looking directly at Sakai's green orbs. Determination shone in her gaze, and deep inside his being Sakai felt he had screwed up. "From now on you and I will be friends."

_____
Translating this from the cell phone is a fucking torture.

Any suggestion and opinion about the narration and story is welcome.
 
02
Nanoha hummed happily as she wrote her part of the investigation on the cardboard, it was a bit difficult to choose which of the 4 themes that Yuudai chose they should expose, but in the end they decided on the conolization of America. In Yuudai's words, the other children will probably choose a topic that is more childish and easy to investigate and if the two of them present something so important and with so much information and background, the teacher will most likely give them a perfect grade and maybe some Extra points that could influence future assignments or the exams themselves.

Nanoha could see the logic behind that and ended up accepting, she had to spend a great deal of time in the school library to be able to find the necessary books that contained that information. And also she had to read those books to be able to choose the most important parts to transcribe on the cardboard. The job that Yuudai could have finished in 1 day, Nanoha ended up taking 3 days to complete. Her teammate wasted no time pointing it out, but Nanoha paid him no heed, preferring to focus on her work and get to know her new friend.

Now, if only Yuudai were more open with her.

Moving her gaze to the right, Nanoha could see Yuudai reading a book, memorizing the part that he will present to the class. For the past few days he has been very quiet, speaking only when necessary and answering some of your homework-related questions. He made no effort to interact with her beyond what was necessary despite her best efforts.

But she wouldn't give up! She would become his friend and thus both of them will stop being alone!


"If you have the time to stare at me so intently then that means you are done writing."

"Eh?" Nanoha blinked in confusion.

"You've been watching me for the last 5 minutes, so I guess you've finished writing your part." Yuudai looked away from the book he was reading and looked at her, his green eyes watching her with interest. "Unless of course you've decided that your job is too difficult, if that's the case then I'll gladly do the rest on my own."

"N-No! I'm about to finish!" Nanoha hurriedly returned to her work, feeling the blood rush to her face as she realized that she had been lost in thought for too long. Her eyes roamed the table and she saw an empty plate near where Yuudai was. "Do you want more cookies?" She asked shyly.

"Do what you want." Yuudai replied nonchalantly. Nanoha took that as a 'yes' and lowered her hand under the small table, pulling out a box of chocolate chip cookies. "Wait, did you have cookies under the table?" He asked in surprise.

Nanoha nodded her head, her previous assumption that Yuudai liked cookies very much was correct, for the last 3 days he had mercilessly devoured all the cookies that she had placed on the table in case any of them 2 was hungry. However Nanoha hadn't been able to foresee how addicted Yuudai seemed to be to cookies, eating them all in less than half an hour, although Nanoha was sure that she was holding back from simply taking the plate full of cookies and devouring them immediately.

Once she finished emptying the box onto a plate she focused again on finishing her work, ignoring the sound of the cookies being mercilessly devoured and what seemed to be an approving sound from Yuudai.

"Ne Yuudai-kun, why don't you want friends?"

This important fact had been haunting the young girl's mind. Yuudai had never given her a real explanation and only said things like 'I don't want friends' or 'I don't need friends', and despite her efforts in the last 2 days Nanoha had not made any significant progress in their relationship.

Therefore she thought that if she could get a true answer from him, then she would be able to understand his reasons and begin to advance their relationship from there.

"I just don't want friends."

"Why?"

"Because I don't need them."

"Why?"

"Because they would be a nuisance."

"Why?"

"Why the hell do you keep asking me the same question?" Yuudai turned to look at her with an annoyed expression on his face. "I've told you before and you still keep asking, Is your tiny brain unable to understand my words or are you just an idiot?"


Nanoha ignored the cruel insult thrown at her, she had learned that Yuudai became a bit aggressive when pushing too hard on that particular issue. Instead she chose to give an answer that he couldn't ignore.

"You always tell me that you just don't want friends, but you've never really given me an explanation why you don't want them."

An exasperated sigh was her only response, Yuudai began rubbing his temples in an attempt to relieve stress.


"There is no reason beyond 'I don't want them and I don't need them', for you a friend can be a good way to socialize and have fun, but for me it's just a waste of time." Yuudai spoke sounding slightly annoyed at her insistence. "Not everyone seeks the company of other people like you."

That answer was not enough to satisfy Nanoha, there had to be a reason beyond simply not needing friends, no one can live alone, everyone needed a person in their lives, that was what her mother had told her and that Nanoha believed.


However, before she could express her thoughts the familiar sound of her phone's ringing rang interrupting the discussion.

"Go ahead and answer I won't go anywhere."

Nanoha got up with resignation, the discussion may have been interrupted but she will definitely resume it once she answers the call, she will not allow Yuudai to escape her question so easily.

-----

Very short chapter, but I didn't see the need to make it longer. Any criticism and suggestion is welcome.
 
03
School could be boring at times, it's not that there were no interesting subjects to learn or that her teachers were bad at explaining their respective subjects, it's just that Nanoha was able to easily absorb the information and knowledge imparted by the teachers and their textbooks.

Despite her young age, or maybe because of that, Nanoha was able to understand and remember almost any kind of lesson taught in school, be it subjects like history or geography, even the complicated math that any other child would do her age had a headache just looking at the number of numbers and problems in her textbook.

If she were in any other country in the world then she would definitely be considered a child prodigy, capable of learning and solving mathematical problems that should be impossible for her to understand due to her young age. But since all the kids in the school take the same classes as her then it's safe to assume that they were all geniuses in their own right as well.

Of course Nanoha standing out more among all.

Although even knowing that all of her classmates shared the same lessons as her, Nanoha was still confused by how Yuudai seemed to have trouble getting an acceptable grade on his math test.

The test had arrived the day before without prior notice, catching all the students off guard, luckily the explanation of their math teacher when she said that the test was only intended to test their knowledge of the subject, and that the result would not affect in any way her grades were a relief to most of her peers.

When the results were delivered the next day, Nanoha was not surprised to have scored a 100, beating all of her other classmates and crowning herself once again as the smartest girl in her class.

Being the smartest girl in her class wasn't really important to Nanoha, but she thought that maybe her parents would be happy if she told them that she was.

All of her classmates obtained a passing grade above 80.

All except one.

Nanoha turned her head and looked at the boy who was at the back of the room and who had a look of annoyance on his face. Despite the distance that separated them, Nanoha was able to easily observe how Yuudai's green eyes gazed with undisguised hatred at the sheet of paper in his hand, a huge change compared to the usual bored look that he always had.

Nanoha could understand his annoyance, she would also be annoyed if she was the only person in her classroom to get a rating of 60, although she would not be so annoyed as to have such a furious look in her eyes.

Nanoha guessed that the reason why Yuudai should be so angry was more due to the laughs that his classmates made upon hearing Yuudai's result and how the teacher advised him to put more effort into his studies.

Because of that, he might as well be considered the least clever kid in the classroom.

While Nanoha was upset due to the future teasing that her (non) friend will receive soon, she couldn't pass up the golden opportunity that was presented to her.

This was the first time since she met Yuudai that Nanoha learned of something she could be of help with. During the last few days Yuudai had been quiet and distant with her, even in these last two school days where Nanoha tried to get to know him better during the short breaks between classes.

Some of her "friends" had advised her not to approach "the weirdo in the classroom", that any kind of interaction with him was useless and that it was possible that any bad habits he had could be passed on to her.

Nanoha naturally ignored them, which only served to annoy the other children a bit, still she didn't care, if they also wanted to label her a "weirdo" then Nanoha wouldn't mind.

Nanoha couldn't wait impatiently for the classes to end, once Yuudai went to her house later and they both finished the final part of their project, she will offer to help him with him math problems.

The perfect opportunity to get closer to him and become friends with him.

_____
"No thanks, I can solve it alone."

In hindsight Nanoha must have anticipated that Yuudai would refuse to accept help, yet the thrill of finally being able to get closer to her (non) friend kept her from remembering a small detail about Yuudai.

He is proud.

How, really proud.

This was clear on the first day that they both interacted.

From trying to carry out the project on his own account because he would do a better job than her, to refusing to receive even a little help when transcribing the information that he would write.

At school it was no different.

The few times that Yuudai bothered to talk to her at school was when she tried to defend him from his classmates who decide to tease him.

And apparently her question had bothered him.

He had an annoyed look in his eyes and avoided looking at her as he continued to read the math book in his hand, his teeth biting his lower lip as if he was resisting the urge to say or do something beyond concentrating on the math book.

Still she couldn't give up.

"Maybe I was a little insensitive?" Nanoha wondered. Yuudai seemed to be a child indifferent to the opinions of others, but surely spending so much time without friends and being teased by other children made him feel insecure to ask for help, right?

Nanoha was a pretty straightforward girl, so her first thought was to tell Yuudai to stop being a stubborn fool and accept her help, perhaps hitting him a bit in the process, but that thought was immediately rejected as Yuudai's gaze passed from being annoying to distant.

"That look again."

Sometimes he would do that, he would stop moving and his face would lose any kind of emotion as his eyes clouded over, almost like he was in some kind of trance.

Nanoha had only seen him like this when he finished his part of the project, Yuudai just lazily leaned back on the table and his eyes lost any trace of life as he stared off into nothingness.

Contrary to the image he gave, Yuudai did not actually fall asleep or ignore his surroundings, the few times that Nanoha called him while he was in that state Yuudai responded immediately and his expression did not change unless she continued speaking to him.

It was disconcerting to see how Yuudai was able to lose himself staring into space, it made Nanoha wonder what thoughts crossed his mind.

"Well, I will accept your help." Yuudai spoke, his face showed emotions again. "Just because I can't afford to waste time, but don't think this makes us friends or something."

It took Nanoha a few seconds to correctly register the words that came out of Yuudai's mouth, but when she finally understood it a big smile appeared on her face.

"Really?!"

He grimaced, as if the emotion that Nanoha displayed made him feel uncomfortable. "Sure, but it will only be until I can solve these damn problems."

Mentally Nanoha struck a victory pose, her efforts from him were finally paying off! Violence was not even necessary!

Without bothering to ask Nanoha quickly went to the other side of the table and sat next to Yuudai, ignoring the scowl he had on him face.

"What you do not understand?" Nanoha asked, a little too happy.

Yuudai sighed.

Even if he would only allow her to help him until he solved these problems, and even if the time that they would both spend together at her house was ending, Nanoha would still try to become his friend.
_____
I have come to realize that this story doesn't really have much dialogue. I do not know if it's good or bad.
 
04
Saturday afternoon had been… incredibly lonely for Nanoha. It was strange how in just one week she had gone from being depressed over the absence of her family to being happier because of Yuudai's company.

Even if he didn't really bother to start a conversation, his mere presence was enough to temporarily forget her depressing state.

That and she had finally started to get to know him a little better.

The week they spent together working on the school project and the little time Nanoha spent helping him with him math problems had taught Nanoha a lot about what Yuudai liked and disliked.

Although it's not like that matters at the moment, given her personality, Nanoha doubted that Yuudai would go near her house again unless necessary, making the only place where she could continue to befriend him was inside the school.

Unless Nanoha will visit him at his house, but she did not know where Yuudai lived and doubted that he would tell her.

But those were concerns for later.

"Waaaa what do I do?"

She had forgotten how boring and lonely it was to be home alone. Her mother was still running the cafeteria and her siblings were still in school.

And the thought of her father just depressed her even more.

She had already done everything she could to keep her mind occupied, she had taken care of cleaning her house as much as possible, she had done her homework and washed all the dirty clothes. She even reviewed the practice swords that her brothers used to make sure they were in good condition.

But it was too fast, in her eagerness to ignore that horrible feeling of loneliness she was quick to finish with the only activities available that could distract her.

And now here she was, lying on her bed and staring almost painfully at the ceiling, trying to ignore the painful silence that she had been absent for a week.

Nanoha needed something, anything to distract her until her brothers came back, she thought about sleeping before discarding the idea completely, if she slept now then she would have a hard time doing it at night.

Maybe watch TV? Although Nanoha did not know of any anime that will broadcast at this time.

Ding-Dong.

Nanoha raised her face from her bed when she heard the doorbell of her house. That's weird. Who's ringing her doorbell? Usually the only people who visit her home are friends of her parents or brothers. Maybe it was some kind of salesman?

Nevermind, this actually worked in Nanoha's favor. She quickly got up from her bed and went to the front door, curious to know who might be knocking on her door.

When she opened the door she couldn't help but be surprised to see a boy with black hair and green eyes looking at her with a blank expression.

"Hey do you want to chat?"

_____​

This is a very bad idea.

I couldn't help but let that thought cross my mind as I waited for Takamachi to open the door. I wasn't worried that no one was home, Takamachi had been incredibly stubborn and talkative during the week we both worked as partners, so I knew she would stay home alone every afternoon until the rest of her family returned.

Is it really worth doing this?

I really didn't want to interact with Takamachi any more than necessary, I just didn't see the need to derail canon with my presence.

But I couldn't help but feel… irritated, not with Takamachi, but with her annoying situation.

Is this called empathy? Because it's a problematic emotion.

An 8-year-old girl who spends her free time at home alone? Without any kind of supervision? Right after her father had an accident?

I don't consider myself the nicest person in the world, but I couldn't help but feel annoyed. Even if I am now a child, my mind is still that of an adult and I know how painful and sad it can be to live alone for so long. And even though I had gotten used to it, there was no excuse for leaving an obviously depressed 8-year-old alone.

I waited patiently for Takamachi to open the door, I knew she was at home, I could feel her presence. As an adult I felt somewhat responsible for whatever mood Takamachi might be in, and while the thought of simply turning around and going back the way I came was tempting, I held my ground.

I did my best to keep an expressionless face when Takamachi finally opened the door, I had learned that she is a very perceptive girl and I'd rather she didn't realize that I was still worried about her state of mind.

"Hey." I waved lazily. "Do you want to chat a bit?"

I wasn't very enthusiastic about what I was doing and I wasn't sure what changes my decisions could bring. But when I saw the happy smile on Takamachi's face I couldn't help but feel that I had made the right decision.

I just hoped I didn't regret it.
_____

I enjoy writing this, but for some reason I feel like it's difficult.

Anyway, what had to happen happened, we got a little glimpse into Yuudai's thoughts and a little hint that he's not a normal kid.

Any critique and suggestion is welcome. Also, should I post this in the NSFW section too? I don't have any sex scenes planned, but there will be some scenes that can be a bit gory, although that won't happen until much later, so I'm not sure if I should move the story towards NSFW.
 
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