#it upsets me that touma tried so hard to hide a part of himself that ended up playing into his popular persona and

[curapicas]

RIP Yagihara Mami who thought to herself "I can't be Touma's girlfriend nor do sports like his other male friends... oh I know, I'll share his interests in games, I like those! And will finally be nice to Ichinose, they get along so well", thus getting friendly to the one person that getting friendly with would actually upset Touma

[jekunitrash]

Chaos in the Alicein household_Chapter 5

Jeje woke up at 7am, which was really early considering they weren't going anywhere today. But he wasn't sleepy anymore and vampires didn't need to sleep in the first place. He was about to move but quickly caught himself when he realised Mikuni was still comfortably installed in his arms. He looked peaceful for once and Jeje would feel guilty if he was to wake up because of him. So there he was staring at him sleeping again. It was becoming a weird habit, although it wasn't that shocking. They had known each other for years, and they were also linked by the contract. There was nothing wrong about taking care of his eve, Jeje decided.

Speaking of Mikuni, he was starting to wake up. His brows  furrowed slightly and his eyes fluttered open, but he closed them immediatly, burying his head into Jeje's chest in the process. The vampire would have laughed at his antics if he wasn't so quiet and introverted. He felt something else besides amusement that reminded him he had to talk with Lily. Mikuni on the other hand didn't seem to want to get out of bed, as he resolutely kept hiding in the vampire's arms. The latter thought he fell asleep again at some point but a grunt from the blonde indicated him that it wasn't the case.

Mikuni snuggled a bit more, which made his servamp blush, before finally raising his head. He was still drowsy but at least he managed to keep his eyes open. He stared at Jeje for several seconds, and the vampire couldn't help but think he was cute like that.

-"'Morning Jeje." He said with a smile.

-"Good morning." The servamp replied. " Do you want to go for breakfast?"

Mikuni seemed to ponder on the question for a while. Misono should be awake by now, possibly waiting for them to show up. So he nodded in affirmation but recalled something at the same time.

-"Speaking about breakfast... I proposed you blood yesterday." He said looking to the side. Even he could be embarrassed.

Jeje blinked then smiled, but it was covered by his paperbags that he had miraculously kept the whole night. He lightly tugged on his eve's collar, as if asking for confirmation. The blonde merely tilted his head to the side, indicating that it was fine. Jeje then bit gently (if it was possible) and started drinking. Like last time, he didn't take too much, just enough to enjoy the taste. He pulled back as soon as he was done and they stayed in bed for two more minutes before getting up.

As expected, Misono was waiting for them. He gave a questioning look to Mikuni who suddenly remembered the 'conversation' from last night.

-"Ah, Misono. Um... sorry about yesterday. I overreacted. It's fine if we invite the C3."

"I don't really mind." Misono replied. " I mean, I already knew you were a pain."

Mikuni looked scandalized at that, eventhough his brother said it in a teasing way.

-" But what made you change your mind?" The teen asked. Mikuni threw a quick glance at Jeje before answering :

-"Let's say I had some time to think about it... and I have a good partner." He had mumbled the last part and although Jeje was probably as red as a tomato, at least he wasn't the only one feeling embarrassed. Misono didn't make any comment on the two, he only said it was good if Mikuni was sure.

So it was settled, they would invite the C3 except for Touma. Lily was in charge of helping his eve preparing the food and games for every one. It was currently 9am and their guests would be coming at 6pm, so they had more than enough time. They got to work right after breakfast, Lily sent texts to everyone to inform them about the party, Mikuni who was good at manual tasks made some decorations with Jeje helping as best as he could and Misono made a list with all the games they could play. There were still three hours left after they were done with the preparations, so Jeje thought it would be a good time to ask Lily about those 'feelings' he couldn't put a name on.

-"So what did you want to talk about?" The servamp of lust was surprised when his older brother said he wanted to speak with him since he rarely piped a word.

-"It's about Mikuni..."

" Is something wrong with him?"

"No, actually... I've been feeling weird around him lately. Not in a bad way, but..."

Lily smirked to himself. He already knew where this was going.

-"I've always wanted to protect him. I felt guilty for what happened to his mother, and it was hard for him to move on."

The other vampire nodded from time to time, letting Doubt Doubt sort out his thoughts.

-" Even so, he's never resented me, and we were in good terms... But I feel like he's more comfortable talking to me since we came back and... I think... that makes me happy... for some reason."

Lily hummed, he could understand that but there was something he wanted to confirm.

-" You said you felt weird around him, right? What kind of weird?"

"Well, you see... when I heard him laugh yesterday, I felt flutters in my stomach... I was worried about him when he got upset, and when he refused to explain why, I became angry. Because he asked me what did it matter to me, and... I didn't want to let him think I didn't care."

"I see... so basically, you've always cared a lot about him but now you've realised there might be something else. And it's bothering you because you can't pinpoint exactly what that is." Lily concluded.

Jeje bit his lip, that was right. He wanted to put a name on his feelings but he didn't even understand what they were. Lily sighed fondly at him. It was obvious what was troubling his brother but not to the one concerned, apparently.

-"Well, I think it might have been long since last time in your case... But surely it's not the first time you experience this, is it?" He tried to give him little hints so he could figure it out by himself. Jeje thought for a while until realization downed on him.

-"You... don't think I 'm in  l-love, do you?" That would be terrible. Lawless was devastated when Ophelia died. Jeje always tried not to think about the inevitable day Mikuni would have to leave his side. It was already painful enough to see his previous eves die, eventhough he never held them dear. Mikuni was different and he didn't want to imagine his life without him. Crap, he really was in love.

Lily could easily guess what he was thinking by the way he was looking down. He didn't want to lose Misono either but they were vampires and their eves humans. Unless they found a way to make them immortals, they couldn't be together forever. That's when Lily had an idea.

-" You know, we've never tried but... maybe it's possible to turn an eve into a subclass. The C3 conducted studies on us, they might know things that de don't."

That sounded too good to be true, but there was hope. And Jeje knew Johannes personally. They couldn't discuss it any further since the boys came in the room. They were perceptive, so they instantly knew something was wrong.

-"Is something the matter?" Misono asked. The servamps looked at each other, silently agreeing not to worry them with that. Not today.

-"It was nothing too serious, don't worry about it boys!" Lily exclaimed while Jeje nodded.

They didn't seem to believe it but the eves just shrugged it off.

-"Okay, well that's good because our guests will be there in an hour. And I won't tolerate for anyone to be in a bad mood." Misono declared.

-"As I said, no need to worry Misono! Everything will be fine."

Right after Lily said that, the doorbell rang. Misono sighed thinking it was most probably Mahiru and Kuro. He went to open the door anyway and his servamp followed after him.

Mikuni watched them go then he turned to face Jeje who was as quiet as usual.

-"Was there a problem? What were you two talking about?" He asked.

Jeje shook his head no, saying it wasn't important and that they should go welcome the sloth pair too. His eve wasn't pleased by this answer but it wouldn't be wise to push the subject now. So he complied and they both went to the entrance hall. When they arrived, Misono was giving a lecture on manners, saying things like 'the guests shouldn't come too early' and such. Mahiru kept apologizing and explained that they went to the store before coming, which was why they arrived earlier than originally planned.

-"Okay then. Follow me to the living room, we'll wait for the others there." Misono finally gave up. They sat at the table talking about trivial things until the other guests showed up. The C3 members came last, which Mikuni was glad for. It would have been disturbing to be face to face with Tsurugi, even if Jeje and the others were there. At least now he was approximately sure the situation wouldn't degenerate too much. That didn't prevent him from tensing up, though, but he was able to relax when he felt Jeje's presence beside him. He could tell the servamp was being protective by the peculiar aura he was emitting.

Soon enough everyone was chit chatting, eating the snacks Mahiru brought. Tsubaki came with Sakuya only, and Junichiro couldn't make it to the party since he had no one to keep his son. So the only C3 members present were Tsurugi and Yumikage. Hyde who was already starting to feel bored suggested they play truth or dare. Admittedly, it wasn't a bad idea, and they all kind of wanted to learn more about the people here.

"Okay, I will start! Nii-san! Truth or dare ?" Hyde exclaimed pointing at Kuro. The latter mumbled a 'can't deal' and chose truth since he was too lazy to move. Predictable.

-" I will be nice since it's the first round... do you love Mahiru?"

Said eve blushed madly at the question while the spectators thought to themselves it wasn't such a nice question. Kuro glared at Hyde as if saying 'are you kidding me?' but answered nonetheless.

-" You're annoying... you know we're dating, did you have to make me say it in front of everyone? Seriously."

There was a blank before some of them yelled in unison, those who had already figured it out just smirked at the pair. Mahiru was far worse than a tomato by now.

-"Oh by the way, Lichtan and I are also dating!" Lawless declared proudly.

More screaming ensued, the most part made by the hedgehog himself as he was receiving his angel's wrath. The rest sweatdropped at the scene. It would be Kuro's turn to choose a 'victim'... when the greed pair would be done, that was.

[murasaki-murasame]

Ao no Flag chapter 38 came into my house and personally murdered me, so now I’m gonna talk about it, lmao.

Thoughts under the cut.

Oh boy this chapter sure was A Lot.

I’m really glad that the story seems to be getting back to focusing directly on both Touma and Masumi’s struggles, since they’ve been kinda pushed to the side recently. Especially Masumi.

It was pretty blunt, but I liked the whole theme in this chapter about what it means to be truly happy, and if someone is actually happy just because they’re smiling on the outside. It really fits with Touma in particular, who tries really hard to project a specific kind of image, while hiding other parts of himself.

And of course, Touma being so good at hiding his feelings leads to Taichi just making all the wrong choices in their conversation and acting like Touma has his life all together and is genuinely happy about everything. We’ve known that that’s how he feels since the very start, but I think this is the first time it’s come to the surface so directly, and that Touma’s actually gotten angry about it. And I can’t really blame him for being upset. You can tell that all of the casual touching and closeness going on between them in this chapter was just reminding Touma about all the things he can’t say or do, so it makes sense that he’d get upset in that sort of situation.

I hope that the whole ending scene with them actually leads somewhere substantial, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Touma just decides to let the topic go. I guess we’ll see.

We also finally get to see more of Masumi, which was pretty great. It’s nice to see that she’s finally opening up to someone about what she’s going through. Hopefully she doesn’t try and drop the topic and avoid talking about it in more depth. At the very least, I think that what she said in this chapter to Akiko was pretty explicit and hard to misunderstand.

It makes me really happy that she’s still looking out for Touma, and wants what’s best for him. The mlm/wlw solidarity is REAL and they are my friends.

Sadly it looks like the manga’s going from a biweekly schedule to a monthly one. It’s understandable, but still kinda sad. Thankfully I think the next chapter comes out pretty soon in Japan, so it might not take THAT long for the translation of it to come out, but after that it’ll be kinda painful. I wonder if the change in schedule is going to lead to the chapters getting longer. I guess we’ll see.