[SFW VERSION]
🌹 There's something wonderful in those who stare death in the face. Even in a world wracked by relentless calamity, flowers blossom between a sea of corpses, the shapeless crimson rivers marched over by mechanical instruments of mass...
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"Wait, but... but it's not Valenti—"
Naga clapped a strong hand over my mouth, cutting off my every word. She pressed a finger to her lips, gesturing for me to be absolutely hushed.
"Play along, will you? Tia really wanted this."
Heeding both her warning and her word of advice, I gave a slight nod, that of which seemed to satisfy the girl to some extent because she granted me a warm smile and took her hand off my mouth.
"Now, like I was saying," she added, "Tia's hauling in a box of chocolates soon. She's gonna expect a good reaction out of you, so you'd better sit your behind right there and love it."
"I will," I said, already envisioning the scenario in which I open that box of sweets, meet Tia's eyes wearing a smile and make her heart melt.
Then again, making her heart melt is a pretty straightforward task. Given she always seemed so enamored by me, I figured it would be easy enough to charm her yet again. I reassured myself I wasn't becoming some kind of prince charming, and that this was just the reality of dealings with a lovestruck girl such as Tia.
Naga hopped up onto my office desk, casually taking a seat as though my room were just another classroom at the school. Some part of me wanted to ask her to get down, I'd just finished making the place entirely spotless, but as always, I found it hard to deny her the luxury of getting comfortable around me. I thought, at some point in the future, Nero or Drake or Anis would come by and start lounging without a care in the world. So it didn't matter much.
Besides, I was sure Laplace was destined to come tumbling through my window again. My room wasn't staying clean for long, that was for sure.
"Okay, she's gonna be here in a sec," said Naga, turning to me. "Prepare the prettiest smile you can possibly muster up. C'mon, practice on me for a second."
"Practice?" I asked. "I know how to smile."
"We need a big, big smile this time. Tia's super pumped, so your standard smile won't do."
Even though I was sure even the slightest of smirks would get the girl's heart pounding, I caved in and started practicing my smile. The whole time it was hard to get a good one out, what with Naga being the one to watch me like a hawk and evaluate every twitch of my lips.
"Bigger," she said.
I tried a bigger smile.
"Nevermind, too big."
I smiled a little less.
"Scratch that. Just wear your plain smile."
I barely held myself back from rolling my eyes. "Fine by me," I said.
"Here she comes." Naga hopped to her feet and faced away from my desk. Rather than being as close as she was a second ago, Naga retreated to the corner of the room and settled down on the couch. It didn't take long for me to realize this was just her attempt at looking natural. She must have been afraid that if she didn't do this, Tia would've felt a little less inclined to come right up to me.
Speak of the devil.
The moment my thoughts swung back to Tia, the door to my room came open. It chuffed, sliding aside to allow the girl with a box of chocolate to come racing inside. Just as expected, she was beaming the second she laid eyes on me.
"Teacher~!"
With an almost childish stride, she bounced over to my desk. She quickly set down the massive box of sweets, almost too massive, and proceeded to come around the side of my desk to pull me into a bear hug. At first I tried to resist, but nothing could stop this girl when she happened to be set on getting someone or something she wanted.
"Good to see you too," I gagged. She was this close to crushing me and she knew it.
"Alright, alright, the plan wasn't to kill Teacher." Naga stepped in as she usually did, prying the clingy schoolgirl from my body. She popped off my torso, her arms still reaching for me even as Naga yanked her back to the opposite side of the desk.
"Bummer," Tia mumbled, clearly ashamed she now had to stand a few feet away from me. "Anywaaaay... I picked out the tastiest chocolates for you, Teacher. Call this an early Valentine's Day from me to you."
Just as I was about to thank her and give her the smile Naga strictly prepared me for, the door came open again. We all looked over as another two figures stepped inside. Admi and Nero.
Just like Tia had been, Admi was carrying a box that looked strikingly similar to the box of chocolates on my desk. I looked down at it. Admi looked across the room at it, then at Naga and Tia without letting out a single word.
Nero behind her swayed her tail to and fro, those feline eyes scanning the room. She was poised to pounce like any cat might.
Realizing there was no way out of this, I slouched in my chair and let the "Valentine's" rivalry unfold...
