A New Normal [A Dragon Maid Story]

Life is an endless struggle

"Man, Valentine's Day sucks." Kobayashi sighed in exasperation, carrying a rather large box of friendship chocolates.

"I don't know what you mean. I think Valentine's extremely fun!" Hutch said, glee in his tone, while carrying an entire bag of chocolate.

Kobayashi sighed. "I guess you won the men's competition. I really don't see the interest of burdening yourself with these things."

Hutch had already eaten a fair few of his large pile of chocolates from as many intersted candidates when he offered his colleague one of them. "You think too much, you should just enjoy the sugar for today." Among all the chocolates, this one was standing out, showing the talent of its maker, it was a dark chocolate, with a caramel outline and almonds all over.

"Didn't take you for the type to repurpose chocolate." Kobayashi smirked at her own sarcasm, which mildly exasperated the large man.

"It's not." Then he got a spark. "But it would have been such a cool idea. I need to note that for later. Anyway, take it as a warm up for what I've prepared you." He opened the door to Tohru, the dragon maid, happily greeting the couple.

"Hello Miss Kobayashi, did you know today was a day dedicated to a certain Saint Valentin... get out of my sight Siegfried."

"And here I thought the events of New Years had put some kind of thought in your head. But I guess it's difficult for you to adopt a human thought pattern. Not because you're a dragon, but because you're an idiot." In the middle of his monologue, Hutch had already swiped the chocolate box Tohru prepared and was eating a few of them.

"Hey! Who told you you could try them out!" Tohru had turned to face Hutch, who was heading towards the living room, allowing entrance to Kobayashi.

"You know how he gets Tohru." She smiled at the maid, before continuing. "I think you two have come a long way. That he trusts you enough to actually try one of your chocolates. If it happened a few months ago, he probably would have thrown them away, pretending you added something to them. Of course, if such a ridiculous idea even crossed your mind, and I were to try some of them, it would probably cause some irreversible damage to our relationship, and maybe I would even put some distance between us due to our shattered trust. Leaving the sad thoughts aside, how does it taste Hutch?" Kobayashi's eyes were invisible behind her thick glasses, making her expression unreadable

"I think I accidentally gave you the wrong batch, please allow to me fix my mistake!" That was all she said before taking the chocolates back and promptly getting rid of them.

"Well, that surely happened." Hutch moved towards the TV, where Kanna was lying down, her eyes fixed to the moving images, a bored expression on her face. "Did you stay alone all day?" Hutch inquired.

The little girl nodded. "Staying inside is so boring. Please play with me, master." She rolled up on the large man.

"Alright, let's get you outside." Hutch and Kanna held hands and walked towards the door. "We're leaving." Hutch waved.

"Wait a minute, I'm coming too." Tohru stated.

"Hm, then I guess it's just me tonight. It's really been a while since last time I was a-"

"so, can you guys explain why you kidnapped me out of my own house?" Kobayashi said, with visible irritation as she was hanging way up in the air on Tohru's back.

"Do you want the kid to be upset at you because you're a born shut-in?" Hutch replied.

"Don't try to pull the emotional card on me young man!" She retorted, right after, Kanna clung to the office lady, making her lose her composure.