the irate strain did nothing but delay him further. With a final sigh of motivation, he tightly clutched the plastic bag at hand and walked through the final passageway that led to the mahogany door of the detached house. He carelessly felt the agitating wig on his head for any imperfections and once it was deemed according to his standard, he rang the doorbell; awaiting for the tenant to welcome him in as done multiple times before.

The door pulled back with a creak, and he immediately drew a polite, amicable smile when came face to face with Maribel's amma.

"Hi mami—" his greeting was cut abruptly short when the middle aged woman hurriedly beckoned him into the humble abode, her worried tone noticeable amongst the few broken words of German she attempted to speak. Something about the cold weather, something else about wasting his money when he handed her the plastic bag with fresh produce and something else about, pain in the leg was it? Before then calling for Mayil who'd come downstairs with a rather sour expression.

"You're 23 minutes late." She mumbled with a stone-hard stare.

"And you've got rice stuck between your brackets." His unrelated comment made the girl shut her mouth close, and he watched as the girl discretely licked her teeth to dislodge the intrusive rice grain.

"Mayil, get the Siddhalepa from my room." Her mother spoke (in tamil duh), her tone leaving no room for arguments.

"Huh, why?"

"She's been limping the moment she got here."

"...." Maribel raised a brow, limping? Did he injure himself or something? "Is it for her...?"

"If she doesn't mind, then I'll—"

"It's fine, I'll do it." There's no need for Amma to kneel down for this fucking bastard.

"Are you sure, I don't mi—"

"I'll do it." Her words curt, she gestured towards Kaiser's leg and switched from Tamil to German, "did you hurt your leg?"

"It's just muscle soreness—"

"Hurry up and come upstairs, I'll apply some pain relief balm." She ordered, before scrunching her face when she realised he couldn't exactly 'hurry up' in his lousy predicament. "It's only just soreness right? Then it shouldn't be that much of a hindrance."

"...." Hahaha... what a petty bitch. "You don't hav—"

"Wash your feet too, please, I beg. Oh, and now's probably the time to let me know if you've got any history with athlete's foot."

"I can assure you I don't have that."

"Just making sure."

"...."

"How d'you even get hurt or whatever?" She queried, sitting down criss-crossed on the floor beside her bed where he sat on by the edge.

"Maybe because I work out..?" His response was supposed to be witty, sardonic.

"Well, no shit, Sherlock." Uncapping the lid of the glass jar, she turned to face him with that irritated face again. "Don't you guys, like, I don't know— stretch to prevent this?"

"Stretching only mitigates it, it's not really a preventative measure."

"Oh," I know mitigation from geography! So there really were some perks of studying that godforsaken subject after all, she supposed.

"Plus, I..." sighing, he resisted the urge to rub the base of his neck in discomfort, "I ran out of time..." he muttered, voice barely above a whisper as he gingerly rolled up his trouser leg just above his knee, a tentative measure to alleviate the pain. I can't believe I'm actually agreeing to this...

"Huh?" Growing frustrated of his sluggish movements and his dry replies, Maribel harshly tugged his other pant-leg up, eliciting a pained hiss that had warmed her heart in a manner she'd never expect. Fucking deserved that, you piece of shit.

"Eugh—! Had to run a quick errand," he repeated as he sucked in a shuddering breath. It'd be better if she didn't bother—!

"Quick?" She raised a brow dubiously, taking a generous amount of the herbal ointment with one hand before facing him again. "Isn't it common courtesy to at least— tell me beforehand? Oh wait, let me guess," she sprawled her hand out to pause him from speaking, "you're that much of big shot that you're exempt from this rule?"

"Well, is it common courtesy to arrive empty handed?"

"...." Well, there was that too. Every time Kaiser came over, he'd always end up coming here with a bag of produce native to and popular within Tamil Eelam. This action of his a ruse to increase Maribel's family's favourability towards him. "Y'know," she started off hesitantly, hoping her next words wouldn't come of across as ungrateful, "you don't have to feel obligated to buy shit all the t—"

"Don't bark orders at me. I'll do as I please, thank you very much."

"....." Understanding his sudden spike of hostility, she replied rather satirically, "Well then please reward me instead, since y'know, I'm the one treating this, minor hindrance of yours."

"Right..."

Blissfully oblivious to his growing resolve, Maribel didn't waste any more time with small talk, she began gently fomenting the affected parts of his muscles with her other hand before applying the balm on his knee with her finger. The balm, cool at first contact, began tingling lightly against the soreness.

Kaiser noted Maribel's tender touch, a prominent antithesis of her usually harsh and degrading words and he intensely watched as her countenance hardened in deep concentration, this, was completely foreign to him. Both her unfamiliar attitude and just the nourishing touch of another human in general.

"Careful darling," he broke the aphonic atmosphere with another irritating taunt, sapphire eyes turning dark with an unreadable glint. "You almost look as if you care."

"...." Maribel unknowingly pressed hard on a particularly sore part, a chill of disgust crawling up her spine at the patronising endearment. "Why the fuck, would I, care for you?!"

"Ahh— shit! Gentler! Be more gentle, woman!" He pleaded hysterically, before shutting his mouth abruptly when she threateningly motioned to torture it further. "You just seemed so adamant on applying it, eugh. Was I wrong to make such judgement...?"

"Well, obviously," she mumbled, focusing on the task at hand again, you're just not deserving of Amma's kindness... "If not me, then my mum would've—"

"Your mum..?" He parroted distrustfully, he had his doubts. The prospect of some random woman wanting to tend to and nurture his pain seemed absurd, utterly ridiculous. His own, biological mother had abandoned him for goodness's sake, cast him aside without so much as a second glance, his own blood. So who in their right mind, as an outsider, would involve themselves in his affairs?

"Yeah," Maribel hummed, "I would never go out of my way to do something like this. Well, not for someone like you anyway..."

"Oh," right. It was wrong of him to even amuse such delusional thought. Why would she be worried for him when he's only ever terrorised her peace?

"By the way," she trailed off, unintentionally dragging her fingers down his toned, faintly scarred leg. Must be from being tackled by the cleats... but don't they wear shin guards..? Blissfully nescient of the hot shiver that crawled up his veins at her firm, yet feather-light tantalising touch, she queried determinedly, "how d'you shave your legs really smooth?"

"....it's a secret— AH! OKAY FINE, FINE!" He quickly gave in with a resonating groan when noticing how her hand hovered menacingly above, imperilling to do more harm as the prior, tender strokes became a distant memory.

"Chop, chop, young boy. The clock is ticking."

"I'll tell you only if you answer a few of my questions of mine," he tested his luck with slight hesitation, dubious of her approval to his proposal.

"Uhh, sure, I guess?"

Ah—! That was way faster than expected! "When, when Noel escorted you to the infirmary, did... did he ask you any unnecessary questions..?"

"...unnecessary questions?" She mumbled seemingly in recollection, he did ask me a lot of things... "some, I guess. But isn't that just small talk?"

"It is, but anything specifically..?" He pressed further, inwardly praying the older footballer had not thrown him under the bus.

"Um, just things about my eye and shit," she paused to refresh her memory of the prior conversation. He also asked if we were close, to which I obviously denied! But it'd be embarrassing if I mentioned that... "Um, and he just spoke to me in french when he found out I could speak too, y'know, the ice breaker questions to fill the awkward silence..."

He hummed in acknowledgement, leaning back and voicing out the query that bugged him, "you can speak French fluently?"

"Well, not really that fluently. I came here when I was like— seven? So, it's been a while."

"What? Were you born there?"

"Mhm."

"I see," he mumbled, making a mental note to utilise this fact whenever the time called for it. It's just as Ness mentioned. "Your German's quite articulate," he complimented. It was truly a wonder how she was able to ace every German paper they've sat, but even so, her accent is a little— odd? It's all over the place and uncharacteristically soft. His flattering comment would've charmed Maribel had it not been for his subsequent remark. "Well, you do talk a lot. Almost too much, so no wonder you quickly caught on to it."

"...you're the one who's always whining about hearing another story," she mocked, her eyes rolling of their own volition. Maribel was naturally a quiet girl, well sauf for the times she was with her esteemed people, but for the most part, it usually took a while to warm up and eclose to her most authentic self. But then again, if given the opportunity to yap without facing any judgment, the curly-haired girl did talk a lot. Like, a lot.

"I suppose," he shrugged before hastily changing the subject. "One more question, are you friends with that vulgar, pink-haired philistine?"

"Huh?" Maribel blinked owlishly as she repeated his words, vulgar, pink-haired, what now—? "Do you mean, Ryusei..?" Somehow, she was able to connect the dots between two major unique qualities the tawny teen possessed.

"...." Kaiser's jaw became taut and his mood dampened furthermore. "You're on first name basis with that insect?" You don't even say mine's...

Insect...? Making a mental note to research what a 'philistine' was, she pursed her lips in rumination. An insect...

Well, it was true.

Shidou was vulgar and somewhat resembled an insect (roach), but even then, the mocking tone adorning Kaiser's query did bother Maribel. It shouldn't have.

"We're not—" she choked on her words, how unusual. It came ever so easy for Maribel to say they're weren't friends, fuck, she had mentioned it several times before straight to Shidou's face himself, so why? Why was it such a struggle to say it now? "I'm not friends with him.....and he just— he just asked everyone to call him by his given name since that's what they do here in Germany..." The lie fell through her teeth so easily. Maribel, who rarely lied in serious situations, was strangely so gifted at it.

"Hmm, well you seemed close to each other." He persisted with a bland tone, hoping to forcefully (and figuratively) corner her into sating his unanswered inquiries. 

"...He's just been placed in my homeroom class temporarily, we're not close with each other." Maribel denied quickly, wanting nothing more than for Kaiser to completely drop this whole topic.

"Mhm. Yeah, sure." Scoffing dubiously, he nodded slowly, mockingly. Kaiser wasn't fucking stupid. He'd seen how the two involved were interacting. Even an imbecile with below average IQ could discern it wasn't simply an acquaintance type of relationship they shared. Classmates didn't just casually display physical intimacy with one another, especially those of the opposite gender.

The blond was harshly disturbed from his brooding state when a searingly sharp throb detonated by his gastrocnemius, "Ah— shit!" He cursed through clenched teeth as Maribel unknowingly dug her finger deeper into the tenderness, uncaring of whether it brought him discomfort. "Oi,—" he called out urgently, before abruptly grabbing her by the wrist when his frantic plea had fallen deaf on her ears.

"Huh?" Her head snapped towards the frigid, ironclad grip encapsulating her wrist, "Oh." I blanked out..

"Oh? What do you mean, 'Oh'?!" He sneered with irate burning white in his blood, his breath shuddering huskily. "Is that seriously all you have to say? You could've seriously injured me, and then you would've been in a bunch of trouble."

"You could've seriously been in a lot of trouble," she mocked, her voice high and smarmy. "Well then, may I have the honour to humbly offer my apologises, your royal highness?" Maribel spoke with a lilted, sardonic tone as she gently pried off his grasp, "This lowly servant of yours has been malnourished and has lost all her reasoning."

"Malnourished?" He repeated with a frown, mildly offended at the lack of contact, "you've not eaten?"

"I was in the middle of eating," Maribel stood up with a little trouble and walked towards her desk where she ate another spoonful of her fried rice. Kaiser bemusedly observed as she meticulously held the cutlery, the fingers that came in exposure with the ointment raised up ridiculously in a last-minute ditch effort to avoid getting the spoon soiled, the scene comically resembling an aristocrat flaunting their ludicrous tea-drinking etiquette.

"Thought you didn't like when people ate upstairs? Or are you the only one able to bypass that law?" When his witty remark received no answer, he furrowed his brows in contemplation. It's around 5:30, why is she eating now? He peered over her hunched figure with his great height and scrutinised the thermal insulating food flask she was eating from. "Why are you eating your lunch right now? Didn't you come home early?"

"..." Maribel's chewing came to pause as she mulled over his words, I barely said anything and he was already able to figure out this much? Apprehensively acknowledging his eerily accurate deduction skills, her next words came out hesitantly, "um, I... I didn't come home early."

"What about your eye?" He probed immediately after, voice straining with an unreadable intonation. The hit she received to her eye simply wasn't something as 'minor' as Kaiser referred to it as. In a constipated state of concern, he'd curtly dismissed her well-being and was now feeling it prick at his conscience. "That still doesn't explain why your eating now, you should've been home at 3:20 latest, at least two hours ago."

"...I, um.." Sweat-dropping at his pestering attitude, Maribel sighed in defeat. Ah shit, he's so damn unnerving... "I got detention..."

"...."

An impending doom of silence ungainly fell between the two, and Maribel struggled to eat another spoonful of the rice, her appetite wavering as she relived her earlier moments.

"What."

Extra:

By now, the others (Isagi and his goons) present must've realised that their presence had been long forgotten, they all watched befuddled as the tall blond and the shorter girl, who'd been a victim of Igaguri's sloppy shot, interacted in a suspiciously close manner. Immediately noting their proximity and their banter and their affectionate gesture (fist bump), an outrageous thought ran through all of them.

THESE TWO—! THEY'VE GOT SOMETHING FISHY GOING FOR SURE!!! 100%!!!

Hiori was the first to voice out their collective scrutiny, "I've never seen Shidou being so friendly with any one other than Sae or Charles, he even insisted on his given name being used." The cyan-head pondered aloud in an inquisitive manner with a finger on his chin in mock thought, effectively laying the groundwork to discuss some juicy gossip. "And a girl to boot? It almost seems like—"

"—she could be his girlfriend," Yukimiya finished off with a level tone, the brunette nudging his spectacles up the bridge of his nose as the lens flashed white, secreting the air of some intellectual clever clog.

"GIRLFRIEND???" Igaguri, who was still meticulously bowing at a 90 degrees angle, leaped up with an outraged glare. "WHAT?! HOW COULD A FREAK LIKE HIM PULL??"

"That's— that's his girl...?" Raichi slowly brought a shaky hand over to cover his gaping mouth, the weight of his earlier words sinking in deep and biting him back in the arse. She actually wasn't single..?

"Aha—" Isagi could only chuckle at his teammates antics, but something gnawed at him restlessly. Fist bumps were more of a friendly action than a flirtatious gesture, so— girlfriend seems a bit of a stretch...? Plus, the nickname he used for her was a bit— maybe it was used affectionately..?

"Hmm, girlfriend?" Gagamaru considered dubiously as he picked his ear, "but I thought she was smitten for Ness?" He jadedly blew air over his pinky that had previously been in his ear, "but I guess Ferreira and Shidou would be more compatible since they both like art... but then again Ness and Ferreira do talk about Mashle together and Ferreira does look happy when she speaks to him."

"......"

Ah, no wonder it didn't seem right.

"NESS? BUT THAT BASTARD'S OBSESSED WITH KAISER!"

"Ness...?" Yukimiya pinched his chin and furrowed his brows in an attempt to remember what his teacher (Hiori) taught him.

"Oho! I see what this is! It's a—" Hiori hinted with burgeoning amusement, his Kansai dialect peeking through.

"Love triangle!" The bespectacled boy concluded with conviction, his fist hitting his palm in realisation.

"Love triangle..?" Kiyora finally spoke up, his brows pinching in confusion.

"Triangle like a Dorito. Dorito!" Kurona attempted to quell the sea-weed for hair teen's confusion, but he wasn't much help it seemed.

"No, no!" Yukimiya shook his head in distraught, the pointdexter a little too