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"I'm back..."
"Welcome home, Sayo. Jeez, you're soaking wet." Lisa was the first one to greet her.
Sayo let out a long sigh, "Umbrella broke..."
Lisa frowned and grabbed her hands. "Well, come on. Let's get you warmed up and dry."
Sayo allowed Lisa to pretty much drag her through the house to the bathroom. Sayo was a grumpy mess right now. She was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. But of course something just had to go wrong.
"Ah, Sayo. You finally got home." Yukina happened to be passing by the room.
"The umbrella decided it had enough today." Lisa said, "Could you be a dear and get some clothes for her?"
"Sure."
Lisa started the bath while they waited. Sayo was sat on the floor, her eyes unfocused. She was lost in her head.
Lisa gently kissed her on the cheek, "Sayo~ You have to undress."
Sayo grumbled something unintelligible even for herself to understand and slowly got out of her soaked clothes. She shivered as the cold floor connected with her skin.
"Someone's grumpy today. Overtime was that bad, huh?" Lisa said sympathetically.
"People are idiots."
"I can only imagine what types of people you encounter." Lisa replied, "You can get in now."
Sayo held out her arms, her want very clear. Lisa smiled at her and picked her up. Sayo lightly kissed her on the cheek, before letting Lisa place her in the bath.
Yukina returned with some clothes. She set them down on the sink. Lisa thanked her.
"I'll be in my room if you need me." Yukina left, shutting the door.
Not that it mattered. The only ones in the house had already seen the others naked countless times already. After all, everyone in this house was dating.
When high school had ended, they had all gone their separate ways for a while. Yukina went to college to study music. Lisa went and studied fashion. Sayo for business. Rinko became a seamstress and opened her own business. Ako pursued being a streamer, having Rinko join in every once in a while.
While in college, Yukina and Sayo had started dating. Somewhere down the road, Lisa joined. It had been the three of them for a while, until the five of them met up again. Rinko had pulled Lisa aside during that day and had confessed to her. After explaining the situation, Rinko joined the relationship, all of them dating each other.
Ako felt left out and at least asked to be included in some things. Which included them getting a house together. Down the road, Ako realized she had developed feelings for them too and officially started dating them all as well.
Legally speaking, Sayo and Yukina were married. Rinko and Lisa were engaged. Ako was just kind of there in the legal side of things. She was fine with it. That was what she got for being last, as she put it herself.
Roselia was gone. They had disbanded after the third years had graduated. They didn't see themselves coming back anytime soon. Being in the band had been fun, but times had changed for them. Most of the bands had not made it past graduation. Only RAS and Poppin' Party remained together and still performed.
Lisa worked part-time as a model, as well as being Rinko's business partner. She designed the outfits and Rinko would make them. Yukina offered music lessons of varying degrees, which is what she was doing at the moment. Ako was just a streamer, but she was quite popular and made enough to keep that as her only profession. She had promised if it wasn't enough, she would get another job and make that a hobby.
Sayo was currently working at a major company in the area. She was hating it. But, no better opportunities had come to her. She had to deal with it.
"So, do you have off tomorrow?" Lisa asked as she gently rubbed Sayo's back.
"Maybe..." Sayo grumbled, "I may be called in."
"You really don't get much time to yourself, do you?" Lisa frowned.
Sayo replied with a frown of her own. Lisa kissed her on the forehead. It was stressful for them all. Having to handle Sayo being in a constant bad mood was tough. They just wished there was something they could do to really help her.
"Would you like me to leave you in peace?" Lisa asked.
"Stay..."
"Tired, aren't we?" Lisa ruffled Sayo's hair.
Sayo nodded and shut her eyes. Lisa guessed Sayo wasn't in the mood to do anything. Not very surprising, unfortunately.
"Want me to wash your hair?" Lisa offered.
Sayo let out a hum of confirmation. Lisa carefully did that for her. It was soothing to Sayo. Soothing enough to lull her to sleep.
Lisa was careful as she finished washing her up. She didn't want to disturb her when she needed the rest very badly. So, once she was satisfied Sayo was warm and clean, she took her out, dried her off, dressed her, and then brought her to bed.
Their room arrangement was a little strange. They had found a good house that had enough bedrooms for each of them. So, everyone did get their own room. Now, was it likely they'd use their own rooms? Not really. It was a guessing game as to where everyone was if you needed them during the night.
...
Sayo woke up around one AM. She was still exhausted. She vaguely was aware of a presence beside her on the bed. Sayo didn't have the energy to open her eyes and simply opted to move closer. Whoever it was wrapped her into a hug. Sayo felt content with that and found herself quickly drifting back off to bed.
Unfortunately, her stomach had a different idea and started complaining it was hungry. Sayo couldn't get comfortable now. She frowned and finally opened her eyes. In front of her was Ako. A bit of a rare occurrence. Ako tended to stay up quite late, so she was the most likely one to actually be in her room.
"Ako?"
"What's up?" Ako opened her eyes.
"Did I wake you?"
Ako shook her head, "No. I only just laid down. I thought I woke you up."
"Why're you here?" Sayo couldn't help but be curious.
"Lisa said you were really grumpy so... I thought you'd like some company for the night." Ako offered.
"Um... I... guess this is nice..."
"You need something?"
"I'm hungry..." Sayo was a little embarrassed to say it, "I can't get back to bed with my stomach growling."
"Your dinner is in the fridge." Ako sat up, "I'll come down with you."
Sayo let out a groan of complaint. She did not want to get up. The complaint took Ako by surprise. Sayo was not one to be like this.
"You know the rules." Ako replied.
Sayo grumbled again, but sat up. She rubbed her eyes. Ako got up. Sayo didn't move. Ako sighed and dragged her out of the bed. Looks like she had to fight against Sayo being stubborn.
"Come on." Ako tugged her toward the door.
Despite how many years had gone by, Sayo still was always caught off guard at first by how much taller Ako was. She had hit a growth spirt not long after becoming a second year. She was just slightly taller than Sayo was now.
"I feel like I'll fall down the steps." Sayo stated.
It was true. She wasn't very awake. She already was stumbling around trying to walk.
"You're really being complicated tonight." Ako sighed, "Fine. Then we'll do it this way."
Seconds later, Sayo was now up in the air. The sudden leverage woke her up a lot more. She panicked and tightly grasped onto Ako.
"You could've warned me!"
"Shh. You'll wake the others." Ako quickly hushed her.
Sayo took a few deep breaths to calm herself and then get into a better position. Once she settled down, Ako carefully started walking toward the kitchen.
"Where are they at?"
"They're all in Yukina's room." Ako replied.
"Why were you up?"
"Had to do something that I forgot about."
They were in the kitchen already. Ako let Sayo stand and then went to locate where Lisa had put the dish. Their fridge was chaos most of the time so finding things could be difficult.
Sayo sat down at the small island in the kitchen. She rested her head on her arms and watched Ako. Thankfully, the plate was easy to find. Ako put it in the microwave. She looked back at Sayo for a moment, before grabbing a fork.
She took the plate out and set it in front if Sayo, before taking a seat next to her. Sayo poked at the dish for a while, knowing it was too hot to eat yet. And she didn't have the energy to blow on it right now.
"Have you been getting enough sleep?" Ako questioned.
"I don't know anymore." Sayo sighed in defeat.
"Hopefully you won't have to go in tomorrow. No one will complain if you sleep all day."
"Yeah..."
Sayo was slow to eat. She was expecting Ako to leave and find something to do while waiting, but she remained right where she was the entire time.
When Sayo finished, Ako was nice enough to clean it up for her. Sayo watched. She didn't feel like getting up yet.
Ako stood beside her and waited. Sayo got down very clumsily. Ako sighed and picked her back up. She didn't need to deal with that right now.
They went back to Sayo's room. Sayo was glad to be back in bed. Ako laid back down beside her.
"Do you need anything else or are you good now?" Ako asked.
Sayo was already out. Ako rolled her eyes. She pulled the covers over them both. Sayo curled closer to her. Ako brushed some stray strands of hair out of her face and then closed her eyes.
...
Ako woke up in the morning to the sound of talking coming from below. She yawned and opened her eyes. Sayo was still fast asleep beside her.
Ako carefully got out of the bed and went downstairs. Lisa was cooking breakfast. Rinko was helping her. And Yukina was... also helping? She was still hopeless at cooking so Ako was unsure what she was doing.
"Morning, Ako!" Lisa spotted her first.
"Morning." Ako replied.
"You and Sayo were being loud last night." Yukina commented.
Ako sighed, "She was being difficult."
"She seriously needs to quit that job. It's not worth it." Yukina groaned.
"She's tried other places but no one seems to want her." Rinko pointed out, "She'd have no job then and you know how she feels about that."
"Maybe she could go work with someone she knows?" Lisa suggested, "Haven't some of our friends started their own businesses too? Or inherited it from their parents?"
"True. I suppose asking around would be a good idea."
"We should do something nice for her today." Ako said, "Well, if she doesn't sleep all day."
"Like what?"
"Well, as much as she won't admit it, she does like being showered in affection. Maybe just spend the day pampering her however she'd like?" Lisa said.
"We can give it a shot."
They started discussing other things while breakfast was being made. It was a peaceful Saturday where none of them had work.
"Morning..."
"Sayo, I'm surprised you're up already." Yukina stated.
Sayo just shrugged and took a seat next to her. There were bags under her eyes and she looked a mess. It was obvious she had crawled out of bed and come down without doing anything else. At least Ako had fixed her hair while she headed to the kitchen.
"Tea?" Rinko offered her a cup.
"Thanks..." Sayo accepted it and took a few sips.
Yukina pulled a hair tie off her wrist and put Sayo's hair up after combing her hand through it a few times. Sayo barely acknowledged her doing so. Yukina gave her a quick peck on the lips and also tried fixing her shirt a little bit.
"So, you gonna go back to bed after breakfast?" Lisa asked.
"Maybe." Sayo shrugged.
It was enticing to go back to bed, but part of her felt guilty about wanting to just sleep all day. She still felt like she had to do something productive every day or else it was a waste.
"Or, we could watch TV in the living room and if you'd like you can doze off in there." Ako offered.
"Sure..."
Sayo didn't really seem fully there. She was pretty sleep deprived from many things. It was a wonder that she woke up so early today.
"Alright. Everything is done." Lisa said.
They set the table and ate breakfast. There wasn't much conversation going on. Everyone kept glancing at Sayo, making sure she was alright.
Ako and Lisa cleaned up the dishes. Yukina managed to get Sayo to the living room. It was an adventure. She didn't seem to be really listening. But, soon enough she was on the couch. Yukina went back to the kitchen to grab something.
Rinko sat down beside Sayo and turned on the TV. She wasn't sure what to look for. It was a little early for anything good to be on. But, who knew. Maybe they'd get lucky?
Rinko paused as weight appeared on her side. She looked over to see Sayo had opted to cling to her. She shivered and moved closer. Rinko grabbed the blanket laying on the top of the couch and laid it over her.
She couldn't say she was surprised Sayo was cold. The poor girl was only in a tank top and some sweatpants.
Sayo slowly relaxed against her side, appearing to have gone back to bed. By that time, the other three came in. Lisa came over and sat on the other side of Sayo, fixing the blanket so it was less likely to fall off of her.
"Don't know why she even bothered getting up." Lisa said.
"Sayo's always a mystery." Yukina replied.
"A mystery that refuses to be solved." Ako added.
"So, see anything good to watch, Rinko?"
"Not yet."
They found an old TV series they watched a lot in college. It was good enough for now.
Sayo had somehow managed to climb halfway into Rinko's lap. Rinko hesitated for a while, before finally moving her completely onto her lap. It was probably more comfortable that way than the way she had been laying.
Lisa took Sayo's spot and wrapped her arms around Rinko and Sayo. She kissed them both, Rinko returning the kiss.
Ako decided she wasn't getting left out and proceeded to suffocate Yukina in a hug. Yukina rolled her eyes and returned the hug, which made Ako lighten up a bit.
...
"Ah. I got some responses."
"You already asked people?"
"Of course."
"What do we have to work with?"
Lisa had sent out texts to those she knew had ownership of businesses and asked if they would possibly hire Sayo. She had given them a lot of the details about how stressful it was for them all and how they really needed a new job for her.
"Well, Ran's off the list as it's a family business. Moca said they'd be willing to let her work at the café. Don't think Sayo does tech stuff so Maya's business is out of the question. If Sayo wanted to do fashion stuff she'd have just joined us so Eve doesn't work either." Lisa said, "If Sayo wanted to be a book editor she could join Misaki's business. Um... don't think acting is something she likes... though Chisato said she could probably get her into their group if she wanted."
"So we have three options. One of which isn't really wanted." Yukina sighed.
"She can either work with Moca and Tsugumi at the café or become a book editor with Misaki. Very different from her normal job." Ako commented.
"When she wakes up she can decide if any of them are something she'd do."
"Why did you ask Chisato though?" Yukina questioned.
"I didn't. She must've been told by Maya or Eve." Lisa replied.
"It's nice of her to offer that." Rinko said.
"Yeah. That's a pretty amazing job to get for a beginner." Ako nodded.
"I doubt she'll take it, though."
"Yeah. That is a lot of work."
"Nngh..."
It seemed the conversation woke Sayo up. She was still resting on Rinko. Sayo yawned and looked over at everyone.
"Hey, sleepyhead. How are you feeling?" Lisa teased as she brushed some hair out of Sayo's face.
"What're you guys talking about?" Sayo asked.
"Well, we thought we'd see about getting you some offers for jobs."
"I've tried already."
"But you didn't ask our friends."
Sayo looked a little confused.
"So, Tsugumi took over her parents' café and since her and Moca are married, they both run it. You could go work there if you wanted to. Or Misaki is looking for people to help her edit books for publishers." Lisa said, "Or if you really wanted to, Chisato said she could get you in her acting team."
Sayo pondered her options. They all sounded better than her current job. That was definitely for sure. But, what would she like to do the most? She wasn't keen of Chisato's offer. It seemed like it could easily get very stressful for her.
Sayo debated the other two options. They were both something she felt confident she could do. It was just a matter of choosing which one to go with.
"Maybe... Misaki."
"I'll let her know then and we'll see when you two can meet up." Lisa said.
"Mmm."
"Still tired, huh?" Lisa kissed her on the forehead, "By all means go back to sleep."
"Cuddle?"
"With who?"
"Everyone..." Sayo was already nodding off again.
"Alright. You can have your way."
It wasn't entirely common for them all to engage in that together. It was most commonly three and two. Not all five of them. So, it was a slight struggle to get it to work as well as they wanted it to.
Sayo remained on Rinko's lap. Lisa returned to her position and curled up against them. Ako took the other side and mirrored Lisa. Yukina was stuck on the outside. She rested herself against Lisa's back.
"You know, this isn't that bad."
"Maybe we can try to do this more."
"It seems Sayo likes it."
She was asleep again, a content smile on her face. She couldn't ask for a better group of people to be by her side. They always did so much for her. Maybe she should try and repay them? If she could work out a new job, she'd definitely consider it.