[SS] A Certain Part-Time Job

She couldn't help but wonder, why was he working part-time at a store that forced him in a very hot-looking costume despite the fact that Summer vacations hadn't started yet and that Tokiwadai should be giving him enough salary for a pretty comfortable life?

Though at some point she dismissed her own questions, figuring that he wouldn't answer even if asked. But then, confusion grew on her face as she continued pushing him while walking.

"Wait, why do you have pre-written answers even though I just got here? Hell, how many flyers do you have with those pre-written answers?"

They rounded the shop's corner, coming to a stop in a small service corridor away from prying eyes. Guy removed the costume's head and shook out his hair.

"Just the key points, really." He replied flippantly. "Now, never mind that you shouldn't even have my number to begin with, but what was so urgent that you needed to contact me?" He looked down on Natsumi with a smirk. "Were you lonely?"

"I wasn't," She slightly looked away and around as she paused. "I just need to buy something. And I would've called you later today because of what you said yesterday anyway, so I figured I might as well make you come along now."

Despite his irritating smirk and question, talking to an actual human being was much better than talking to a giant Gekota. To her, walking around next to a giant Gekota even though she didn''t have any particular liking for childish stuff, was pretty awkward.

"Hang on a second, young lady." He raised his hand with a stern frown. "What makes you think I'll just do what you say?" He unzipped the costume and stuffed it behind a stack of cardboard boxes, shifting a couple so that it was completely hidden. "You've done nothing but cause me trouble, after all."

"For one, you're doing the exact same thing, Gekoman." She sighed and pulled out her phone to check the time. It had been a while since she escaped from Mikoto, so Mikoto should have stopped looking for her by now.

"And for two, I'm curious as to what you'll be doing to make it worth my while and I'm not going to let you off until you've done so."

"Not acting as your servant, that's for sure!" He scoffed. "I'm broke enough as it is without you extorting me, so think again." He cracked a smile. "How about I just buy you dinner and we forget all about this?" He fluttered his eyelashes suggestively.

Playing with fire was a bad habit of Guy's.

She kept looking at him fluttering his eyelashes like an idiot for a while.

"I... never mentioned a thing about extorting you by bringing you here, did I? And..." She scratched her head out of annoyance and used her index and middle fingers to force his eyelids shut, quickly pulling back her hand after doing so. "Don't do that, seriously, you look more stupid than you look attractive..."

She started looking around while she typed something with her phone, and then she showed him the screen with the unsent message

「I think Misaka might be around here.」

"Don't do that, seriously, you look more stupid than you look attractive..."

Guy recoiled in mock injury.

"Well, you can forget about dinner with that attitude." He played off the girl's comment with a shake of his head that swept the hair from his eyes, which came to rest on the screen of Natsumi's phone.

「I think Misaka might be around here.」

"Good, maybe she'll take me up on dinner." He took off down the corridor towards the populated mall with a casual stride, leaving Natsumi to fume over his flippant behaviour.

Bewildered, Natsumi stood there for a few seconds. Was he serious? He took a picture of Mikoto in an embarrassing maid outfit just a few days ago, there was no way Mikoto would forget that. Was he craving for a date with one of his students at the point of being this delusional?

"I somehow feel like even if I had accepted, you would've ran off on me. You're particularly good at doing that." She quickly ran up to Guy. "And you're not seriously expecting her, who probably wants you dead right now, to go dinner with you, are you?"

"You two...!"

"Uh oh."

Looks like her shopping was getting interrupted. Again. And obviously, because things could never be simple, she couldn't afford to let Mikoto see what she was buying. Now was time to think of a way to escape Mikoto and finally buy what she wanted to buy since this morning.

"I somehow feel like even if I had accepted, you would've ran off on me. You're particularly good at doing that. And you're not seriously expecting her, who probably wants you dead right now, to go dinner with you, are you?"

He shrugged. It was hard to tell if he was serious or not.

"Well if she's not interested I'll just find someone who is. Besides, she's probably forgotten all about that by now."

"You two...!"

Or not...

"Hey, Sparky." He greeted Mikoto with an easy going smile. As though unaware of the tension in the air he strolled towards the Electromaster. Either this boy was willfully stupid or he had nerves of steel. "You know I was hoping I'd run into you." He cocked his head casually while continuing. "How do you feel about grabbing a bite to eat?" Something about his manner, perhaps the way he seemed so at ease despite the tense atmosphere made it difficult to decipher if he was being sincere or merely teasing her again.

"Hey, Sparky. You know I was hoping I'd run into you. How do you feel about grabbing a bite to eat?"

Was this a joke? Was he teasing her? Or was he trying to extend this whole maid cosplaying plan? He didn't really think she'd forget about what happened just a few days ago, did he? Natsumi shook her head in a "don't ask me" manner, as she failed to understand him as well.

"The way you're asking it compared to your usual attitude-" Mikoto was interrupted by Natsumi but ignored her, though she did agree. "which, will come back and bite you in the ass one day."

"...is very suspicious. Don't tell me you two planning on tricking me into wearing that maid uniform and make people believe I'm working as a maid?!"

The thought was very, very tempting but if Natsumi tried to do that now, chances are Misaka Storm would be nowhere near forgiving.

"That sounds like a lot of hassle." He sounded tired just thinking about pulling off a stunt like that. "I can't speak for Firestarter over there, though." He gestured over his shoulder with his thumb.

"But I guess if that's your answer I guess I'll just have to find someone else." He produced his phone and began to flip through his contacts list.

Mikoto and Natsumi looked at each other, completely dumbfounded by his uncaring attitude and his odd insistence with having dinner with someone tonight. What was up with him? Though in the midst of all that, Mikoto almost forgot why she was looking for them in the first place.

"Wait... Don't screw around with me! What did you two do with that picture?!" Electricity started to fly around, clearly indicating that if there was an answer that displeased her, she'd be frying both of them.

"Hell if I know, I don't even have it."

As she took on Mikoto's death glare, she sighed. Obviously, Mikoto wouldn't forget what happened the previous night. Added to the whole Maid uniform incident and what she did have on her phone, another picture that's even worse if Mikoto were to know the whole deal behind it... it seemed like the Misaka Storm was more likely to head her way than Guy's.

"You mean this picture?" He swept his finger across the screen of his phone to bring up the image in question. The photograph clearly showed none other than Misaka Mikoto dressed in an uncharacteristically girlish maid uniform. "It's a good photo, right? I'm actually sort of proud of myself." He grinned, turning the screen so that he could take a look.

As though sensing the impending danger headed his way he held the phone away from Mikoto.

"And why Firestarter...?"

As Mikoto recalled the horrible memory, she blushed out of embarrassment while glaring deadly at Guy.

"Y-You... What do you plan on doing with that?! Delete it right now!!!"

That said, she'd delete it herself, as there was little to no chances he'd comply. Slamming her feet on the ground, her electricity wildly surrounding her in a way that made her look like an electric ball, she leaped towards him to grab his phone.

Guy stepped around Mikoto's charge like a matador toying with a bull as he continued to flaunt the red rag of a photo. He kept the phone just out of her grasp as she reached for it and effortlessly slipped past her flailing arms as she lunged for it again.

"Careful, or my finger might slip. You wouldn't want me to send this to... I don't know... Everyone on my contacts list, would you?" His grin became more devious.

"..!! Don't you dare!" She froze in place. While she didn't know who was on his contact list, she couldn't let him send that picture of her in such an embarrassing maid uniform to anyone.

But it seemed like she didn't have much of a choice aside frying the phone. She stopped leaping at him and slightly moved away from him as her electricity surrounded her once again, about to attack his phone.

"I feel like this isn't going to turn out very good for her." Natsumi muttered to herself, slightly grinning and relieved that Mikoto wasn't going after her phone.

"Well would you look at that. This thing makes for a pretty good lightning rod." He commented glibly. Guy waved the phone around himself as though testing his theory. "I think I might hold onto it. Just in case." He took another look at the screen before pausing thoughtfully.

"You know, Pink's really not your colour." He spared the mortified girl a sidelong glance.

"You seem confident in your opinion. What better colour would you assign to her, then?" She received a glare from Mikoto and felt like the Misaka storm was about to head her way. It was her fault that picture even got in his hands in the first place, but she hadn't expected him to take a picture...

"Glaring at me will not help you, I don't have that picture."

"What do I have to do to get you to delete it?!"

He closed his eyes with a self assured smile.

"Well, when you put it like that I'm sure we can come to some arrangement." He stood in front of her with the deep and tender stare of a man lovestruck. He got a twisted sort of enjoyment from watching her squirm in embarrassment. He didn't plan on doing anything unseemly, but for the time being he was content to let her think otherwise.

"Well, when you put it like that I'm sure we can come to some arrangement."

"You don't mean..." She took a few steps back. With the way he was looking at her, he had to mean... that, right?

Mikoto's cheeks quickly turned crimson red and her heart started racing just by thinking about it. But for a split second, she had actually found herself considering it, and that was the beginning of an internal conflict about why she had even thought about it even for a split second.

"W-w-why do you think I'd want to do t-t-t-that with you?! For a picture! No way! B-Besides, I-I'm still in middle school and y-your class and w-w-we're not d-d-d-dating and..!" Mikoto's stuttering and extreme embarrassment, fuelled by her internal conflict and the wild ideas she was having, only got worst as time passed by.

Guy feigned a look of surprise.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said innocently. Though the smirk on his face said he knew very well what reaction his words would garner. "I was just going to ask you to help fix my computer. That's all." He turned away with a shrug. "You're so quick to jump to conclusions..." He flashed her a mischeivous grin as he walked away.

"G-Gah...!"

In a sense, he was right, she did have a small tendency to jump to conclusions on her own, it wasn't THAT bad, but this time it definitely wasn't her jumping to conclusions, he had led her to think he meant that!

"Y-Y-Y-You... Stop screwing around with me! You didn't mean repairing a comp- Hey! I'm not done yet, where are you going?!"

It took her the entire morning to find them, and she wasn't about to spend yet another couple of hours looking for them again so she followed him. Though it seemed Natsumi ran off to somewhere.

"I don't understand why making fun of me amuses you that much..."

"You make it too easy." He shook his head with a wry smirk. He had picked up another tag along it seemed. "And besides..." Even as he started to say those words he wondered if it would mean his doom. "You're so adorable when you get embarrassed." His smirk cracked into a grin.

The doors of the electronics store slid open to greet him and he stepped inside where a young woman greeted him politely. He uttered his thanks before making his way to the computer displays.

"And besides... You're so adorable when you're embarrassed."

Mikoto's face slightly went red from the comment that one could technically interpret as an odd compliment.

"A-Adora... You're making fun of me again, aren't you?!"

About to send sparks flying around as she yelled, she noticed he was entering an electronic store.

She felt like she'd be in big trouble if she destroyed an entire electronic store worth of material, so she kept her temper and ability under check for now and quickly followed him inside. Though she feared Guy wouldn't help her keep her calm at all.

"Hey... Didn't you say something about repairing a computer? Do you even own one?