On the living room couch, Flower suddenly awoke as a voice called her from down the hall.
"Flower!" It was Tohoku Zunko, one of her roommates. "Do you wanna help me with breakfast today? Or are you too tired? It's alright if you are."
Although her eyes were still closed, Flower could hear the girl skip into the living room, stop to look at the couch Flower'd fallen asleep on, and then hurry into the kitchen.
Flower had a total of three roommates. Really, she was only supposed to have two, but she wasn't exactly sure how the last one had ended up here. The last one technically wasn't even a roommate!
The apartment they all shared was bland. Relatively small, but could fit four girls and two pets. Nobody had to share bedrooms, either. It had two floors as well! The walls of each room where usually whiteish-gray, save for the kitchen, which had a darker gray color. Nearly the entire house was carpeted, with the exceptions of the kitchen, the bathroom, and Flower's own room. She'd gotten the biggest, but it had come at the cost of no carpet.
It's not like she used her room anyways.
"I'm making pancakes today," Zunko said from within the kitchen. The doorway was right behind the couch. Flower opened her eyes and tried to rub the tiredness out of them.
"Just 'cause it's Friday and all that. And you're off from work. I also think Una would really like them."
"Do you know if Una's awake?" Flower spoke with a hoarse morning voice, and sat up.
"I didn't hear anything from her room or Yumemi's room, so I don't think she is."
"Don't forget extra powdered sugar for her, then. You know how she gets."
Zunko gave a giggle before going silent to focus on cooking. A soft pitter-patter coming down the stairs told flower that Zunko's pet, Zundamon, had now also woken up. For now, the thing would probably just hop onto her owner's shoulder and get cozy, but she'd probably get curious about one of Flower's games later. The tiny steps rushed down the hallway and straight into the kitchen, and Zunko's cooing confirmed her assumptions.
After an uncomfortable stretch because of her sleeping position, Flower groaned and called, "I'll be right in, Zunko," and cleared her throat.
Flower was just finishing cleaning up as Zunko made the last of the fluffy-ish pancakes when Yumemi appeared in the doorway. Her signature jacket, which featured a large 'N' on the left breast and a Tanuqn button for the neck, wasn't even fully on.
Flower turned and looked from the cabinet, putting away the rest of the pancake batter. "Morning," she stated, eyeing Yumemi up and down. "You sleep alright?" The girl's short, dark brown hair was messier than usual for bedhead, and her headphones- along with her pet, tanuQn- were nowhere to be found.
"I slept 12 hours," was all Yumemi responded with, closing her tired eyes and rubbing them. She wandered into the kitchen as Flower watched and opened the fridge, peering inside through tired eyes and over the huge collar of her jacket. That was the only part of the thing that was on, the rest just hung loosely over her back. Her gray sleeves were even dragging on the floor.
"Oh, don't worry Yumemi," Zunko shot a glance at the girl, "Flower and I are just finishing up breakfast. It's pancakes."
"I know. Just thirsty," Yumemi responded, letting the fridge door close slowly as she made her way over to one of the cabinets. She stood on her toes to open it, and pulled out a glass. She stared at it for a second, before heading back towards the fridge once more. Flower turned away.
"All done?" She questioned as Zunko pulled the last fluffy cake out of thr pan.
"Yep!" The green-haired girl placed it on a large stack with the others. There were at least fifteen. It looked like it would all topple over as she picked up the plate they were sat on. "Can you grab the syrup and stuff, Flower? Bring it to the table for me."
"Mhm," Flower responded, heading over to join Yumemi beside the fridge, who was now sipping on iced water. She grabbed what she needed from inside of it, glanced at Yumemi, and nodded her head towards the doorway. Yumemi didn't react, but as Flower walked away, she drowsily followed.
With her hands on her hips and a satisfied huff, Zunko turned around hurried off back through the door to the living room. The two remaining girls simply sat across from each other at the round table. Flower's head jumped out of her hand when she heard Zunko call out, "Una! Come eat!"
Flower must've been dozing off in order to get scared like that. She blinked slowly, then looked over at Yumemi. The semi-jacketed girl hadn't flinched, only playing with her way-too-oversized sleeves.
A somewhat muffled squeal and Zunko's soft reassurance hardly worked as a warning for Una's loud gasp. Even just Una's presence was loud, let alone her actually speaking. Flower could barely turn back towards the door before she flinched at the child's screech.
"FLOWER!!" Una's huge twintails flew out behind her as she borderline sprinted towards and then jumped into Flower's arms. Flower could barely catch her before they both fell. "Flower!! You're home?! Nobody told me you would be!! That's not fair- but you're home!! Awesome!!"
Una's small arms somehow managed the strength to feel like a death grip to Flower, even despite her bulkiness. The woman simply nodded and placed one arm on the girl's head, which made her notice that Ottoman Bo wasn't there. She was too flustered to question it. Wrapping her other arm more comfortably around Una, Flower looked down at her and managed a tired smile.
"Yes, I'm here, Una. You see me every day though," she paused to brush one of Una's twin tails off of her leg, "why so excited?"
"Well, you're never home! You're usually off doing your job or something until right before bedtime. Where do you go? What do you even do?"
"Don't worry about that, Una. Least I'm home today, right?" The girl's eyes grew somehow bigger as she looked up at Flower's own eyes, and she nodded aggressively.
"We're gonna play some games today," Una stated as she climbed off Flower's lap, being careful as to not step on her own hair.
"What would I even play wisu you? Zunko would kill me if I showed you any of the games I just got."
"Uhhhmmm, well..." Una pulled off a cartoonish thinking pose, one finger to her chin while tapping a bare foot. "Don't we have VR? Do you think they have dancing games?!" Her voice raised as she asked the second question, and she turned to face Flower with excitement once more.
"VR is something we have, yes. Zunko and I would just have to move the center table out of the living room." Flower paused, smirking at Una. "As for dancing games... I'll see what I can do to find some."
"Flower's gonna pirate stuff," Yumemi suddenly spoke up. Flower's gaze shot up from Una to Yumemi, then to the doorway. Zunko was standing there, and the woman expected her to look disappointed, but instead, Zunko just smiled and nodded at Flower. Flower then looked back to Yumemi, frowning. "Nemu, don't talk about that in front of Una."
Yumemi just shrugged. "Call me Yumemi, please," she mumbled before she returned to staring down at her lap.
"Huh?" Una made a curious sound, shifting her gaze between the other two. "What is it?" Flower quickly shook her head. "It's nothing, Una, don't worry about it."
"Well, now!" Zunko spoke up from the doorway now, and everyone looked towards her. Zundamon was now on her right shoulder, and her hands were clasped together in front of her. "Who's hungry? I didn't make all this for nothing!" She nodded towards the pancakes on the table, and Zundamon made an excited squeaking sound. Una hurried into the chair to the left of Flower. Zunko giggled.
"Let's eat!"
