“I can’t believe you’re making us do this.” Teru was irritated at the situation she found herself in. She along with the other girls were wearing maid outfits that were designed for past members of this family. Meanwhile, Kouji had himself on Yuma’s dad’s old servant uniform.

“Yes, this is absolutely humiliating.” Himawari observed herself, this was not something she ever dreamed of wearing in her life. “These outfits are much to revealing. The really weren’t, but these were shorter skirts than what she was used to.

“Oh come on.” He had a smug smile on his face. “Don’t you think you all look so cute?” The two pouted at him in response. “Besides, I’m doing it too. So it can’t be that bad.”

“I think it will be a lot of fun.” Anastasia took this in stride.

“Yeah come on, it’ll be better than being stuck in that room and doing our homework.” Waa also was fine with this. Of course, she didn’t consider this to be lame work. But for him, this was simply his plan as a tutor. As headmistress Isako told him, there was more to raising this school’s grades, then just doing the homework.

Hearing the reason behind that family tradition, it gave him an idea. Perhaps theses girls might learn a little if they have to do some dirty work. Except for Yuma seeing as she already was doing this. At the same time, it meant doing the same as them here.

“Great, well we were going to have the ballroom cleaned. But if you’re all here, then Shinkai over here can take a break, along with all our other servants.” Yuma’s dad told them, glad at the sight he was seeing. “My daughter can take you there, meanwhile I think I’ll get a treat with my buddy over here.” Though there was protest coming from his servant. The two of them left to go wherever he was planning on taking him.

“Well let’s see this ballroom then.” Kouji was ready to get to work.

“...Okay, follow me.” Yuma slowly took them to their destination. Apparently not only was she a slow talker. She was even a slower walker. The place they were supposed to go to wasn’t even that far, but it took them at least twice as long long to get there.

When they finally reached it, he was starting to regret offering to help. Opening the door to the family’s ballroom. The place was a complete mess, food covered all the tables. There was also an odd amount of toys lying across the floor.

“What is all this?” He asked out loud. “It looks like a tornado went through this room.”

“Sorry” She apologized. “There was a… family reunion.”

“Looks like a lot of kids were here.” Waa noted the toys. “You have a lot of brothers and sisters?”

“…Cousins.” She replied. Yuma was actually an only child with her parents here. “And we have over a dozen servants, so this would’ve been no challenge for them.” Over a dozen? That was more than twice the people working on this now.

“Ow!” Kouji felt a strike at the back of his head. Turning back he was met with an angry expression from Teru.

“What’s the big idea? You honestly expect us to do all this?” She yelled at him. Himawari had a similar expression to her as well.

“Yes, I do.” He didn’t back down. “Now if we get this started early, we’ll finish early.” Kouji wasn’t looking forward to this either, but he was going to see this through.

And so, work got started for all of them. Separating into sections, they paired up to get thing done in an efficient manner. Since he took the lead, Kouji paired up Anastasia and Himawari, then Teru and Waa. One of each for those the were and weren’t fine with this assignment.

He chose to be with Yuma, because there was also another thing he needed to deal with in regards to her. Trying to get more tutor time with her.

“So.” He broke the ice, as he was sliding used paper plates into a trash bag. “This is the real reason why you can’t study after school?” Yuma didn’t even turn her head to him. For a moment, he thought that she didn’t hear him, but before he said it again.

“Yes.” She answered simply. That kind of made sense, but there was one problem he took with it.

“Then, how come you were working at the store? You know, when we first met.” If this took her time away from studying, how could a job fit in?

“That time?” She tiled her head up, as if to try and remember something that happened long ago. Even if it was just a couple of weeks ago. “Oh that.” It clicked for her. She told him that if one were to be working, then servant duty wouldn’t be required. It would be considered a substitute for it.

“Right, well you know that it’s my job to tutor you.” He told her. “I can’t do that if you don’t have any free time.” Thanks to her experience, the two of them got done much faster than the others in their section. Though that was more because of the messing around done by Waa and Teru, which explained the delay.

“I don’t know…” Was her only response to his statement. “This is also my duty.” She grabbed their trash bad, and took it out of the room. He followed.

“But there has to be something we can do.” He badgered her. “The last test you took was awful, I have to spend more time with you studying then.” She seemed to ignore his statement, making their way to the dumpster out back, and throwing the bag in it.

“I don’t know…” She repeated that phrase again, as if she really couldn’t come up with any ideas.

“Then what about lunch?” He offered, following her back inside. This girl may have been slow, but she was maintaining her pace in her work. Despite his persistence to talk with her. “I mean, I’m working with Anastasia and Enokida. But I can add you if you’re free then.”

Again, she didn’t reply right away. Instead, she returned to the kitchen, getting to work on the dirty dishes. No matter how long it was taking, he wasn’t going away until he got a response to her. Though it did feel very awkward to stand next to her in complete silence.

“I eat alone.” She finally said something.

“Huh?”

“During lunch, I eat by myself.” She said again. “So I’m free then.” Finally, there was some progress made here.

“Great.” He was relieved, her slow nature was very resistant to him. At least she was nicer than the other girls. “Then just come to my homeroom. That’s where I eat and we can study together.”

“That’s fine with me.” She smiled, finishing up her job. However, she didn’t notice how much water got onto the floor. Yuma took one step, and that was all that was needed to slip.

She would’ve planted her face right to the kitchen floor were it not for his quick intervention. Kouji hugged her to keep her from falling, or at least that’s what he planned.

Instead, he also slipped on the wet floor. Sending the two of them falling together. Kouji fell on his back, with Yuma on top of him.

This was the closest he had ever been to a girl. There wasn’t anywhere he could do to look away other than close his eyes. But that would’ve been weird to do, and he was stuck examining every detail of her face. She didn’t appear to be as flustered as him about this whole ordeal.

“Sorry.” He apologized to her. He felt her body push against his. This girl definitely wasn’t lacking in a certain region of her body. And that maid outfit did little to buffer between the two.

“It’s my fault.” She said, realizing that she should’ve noticed the water on the ground. Then the two of them just stayed like that in silence.

Why wasn’t she getting up? It wasn’t like Kouji was about to push her off of him. Yet the longer this was taking, the more uncomfortable he was about this whole situation. Especially if anyone came looking for them.

“Um, could you get off of me?” He asked her. The look on her face didn’t change, as she did what he asked of her.

“Sorry.” She said again, before falling in silence. Slowly making her way back to her feet. When he picked himself up, was when she uttered more words. “Your eyes… They’re very pretty.”

“My eyes?” He had green eyes, inherited from his mother. No one had ever commented on those before. “T-thanks.”

“They distract from your scary face.” She continued. Could’ve lived without that last part, he thought.

“There you are!” A rather angry voice called out to him. It was Teru, with the rest of the girls right behind her. In her rage, she threw the bad of trash she and Waa collected right at him.

He took the hit, feeling the pain as it fell to the ground at his feet. Kouji sighed, it appeared that his plan to humble them failed. This ended up making them more upset at him than anything.

“We took care of the rest of the ball room, no thanks to you after you pulled that disappearing act.” Himawari showed how dirty her maid outfit got. All of them looked a mess to be honest.

“Looks like you were having some fun without us.” Waa said.

“What?” He looked at her confused. She pointed their clothes, then the ground still covered in water. It was clear to all of them that they were both laying there at some point. “This is all a misunderstanding…”

Now that he was able to find a way to get Yuma to study under him. His job of getting every girl to accept his help was finally completed. However, as the headmistress told him that raising the grade was more than just doing homework.

Getting them to study was massively different than getting them to succeed.

Is there anything people want to see at this point? I've pretty much gotten introductions out of the way so there some wiggle room here.