The man running the stall froze as he turned to Yue. But it wasn’t because the glasses had failed. Instead, they’d fogged up as Yue had been humming to herself and looking through the bowl of eggs, so she’d taken them off for a second to wipe them.
Crap, I forgot to build in an automatic defogger! Hajime inwardly despaired. Unfortunately, it was too late. The few seconds Yue had spent wiping down her glasses had been enough to completely entrance the guy manning the stall. He was standing stock-still with his eyes wide open, as if he’d just seen a goddess.
Sorry, guy, this is my fault... Hajime apologized in his heart, then used a very slight intimidation to bring the shopkeeper back to his senses. Blushing, he hurriedly got the hot spring eggs ready for Yue. He placed two of them into two cups and handed them over. Yue could have asked the shopkeeper to break them open for her, but it seemed she wanted to do that herself.
Yue and Hajime walked over to the trash cans so they’d be able to throw their trash away immediately, after which Yue attempted to crack open her egg.
“Hrrrgh!”
“What are you making those sounds of exertion for?! It’s not that hard!”
Yue’s fingers were trembling as she lifted her egg, her expression deadly serious. She was determined not to spill even a little.
I guess this is what happens when you normally just crack your eggs open with a vacuum wave of magic. Shea would be so disappointed if she saw this... Hajime thought with a slight smile.
“Mmm... It’s so jiggly,” Yue said as she looked down at the inside of the hot spring egg that had plopped into her cup. She then looked pleadingly up at Hajime. It seemed she’d gained some confidence and wanted to break open Hajime’s egg as well.
Trembling even more than when she’d opened her egg, she carefully lifted Hajime’s. Hajime’s smile grew wider as he watched.
“Mmm... I got it all out,” Yue stated with a satisfied smile.
“Thanks,” Hajime said, accepting the spoon she handed to him.
“It melts in my mouth...and it’s so rich.”
“Yeah. Despite how cheap they are, it seems like these guys are using some high-quality eggs.”
The two of them slurped down their hot spring eggs and tossed away the trash. Smiling, they turned to look at each other. Hajime suddenly chuckled and Yue shot him a questioning look.
“You’ve got egg on your face,” Hajime said with another laugh.
“How embarrassing...”
Blushing, Yue tried to wipe the yolk off, but Hajime’s finger reached her first. He swept his index finger across her lips, scooping off the yolk.
Yue let out a soft sigh, then put Hajime’s finger in her mouth. Hajime smiled awkwardly, but he let Yue suck on his finger—until she started making really loud slurping noises, anyway.
“Mrr, but your finger’s so tasty...”
“Not in public. I don’t want you ruining everyone’s New Year’s Eve by turning into an attention magnet.”
Yue looked around and suddenly realized that everyone had been staring at them. The other pedestrians and stall owners hurriedly looked away as Yue turned toward them.
Not even Hajime’s glasses could stop Yue when she was being that seductive. In fact, many of the families with small children were covering their children’s eyes right now. Also, many men with wives were staring at Yue as well.
“Sorry...” Yue mumbled, bowing her head. Everyone bowed awkwardly back, and Yue hurriedly grabbed Hajime’s hand and dragged him away.
“I guess I got too carried away, since we haven’t gone on a date like this in a while...”
She once again stuck their joined hands into Hajime’s pocket.
“I’m pretty excited myself, so I’m not one to talk.”
As he said that, Hajime looked over to a bridge in the distance.
“Why don’t we start walking over to that bridge? I hear there are going to be fireworks on the river to celebrate the new year, and we’ll probably have a good view of them from that bridge.”
“Okay! Oh, but I want to celebrate the New Year—”
“With everyone, I know.”
Shea and the others would definitely get mad if Hajime left them alone for too long, and he wanted to ring in the new year with everyone too.
“Don’t worry, it’ll only be the two of us until the countdown begins.”
“Then lead the way!”
Hajime and Yue smiled at each other again. They nestled even closer together as they started slowly walking over to the bridge. They stopped by stalls to feed each other local delicacies, took commemorative pictures, and even stopped by the foot baths. When Yue took her tights off for the foot baths and Hajime was utterly captivated by her bare legs, the glasses he’d given Yue cracked and everyone was able to perceive her again. Thankfully, Hajime had built them to last and while they didn’t have an automatic defogger feature, they were self-repairing. After a few seconds, the cracks sealed up and people stopped paying attention to Yue again.
Finally, with only half an hour to go until midnight, Hajime and Yue made it to the old bridge he’d pointed out. Yue leaned into Hajime, looking out over the river. There were plenty of other good spots to see the fireworks from, so while a crowd had gathered, it was pretty evenly scattered about and the bridge they were on wasn’t all too packed.
“If it’s this empty, then maybe we didn’t even need a barrier,” Yue said with a guilty look.
“Yeah, now I kinda feel bad for doing this.”
Hajime had already told Shea and the others where they were waiting, so in order to ensure there’d be enough space for everyone, he and Yue had erected a barrier that made people want to avoid the area around them. From the looks of it, though, they hadn’t needed to bother. Besides, even if it had gotten crowded, they could have just moved to a different spot.
Right now, they were holding hands inside Yue’s pocket rather than Hajime’s.
“How are you finding life on Earth?” Hajime asked softly. He wasn’t worried anymore about whether or not they’d be able to make this new life work, since Yue had already made it clear that they would. He was just genuinely curious about what Yue thought of his home.
In an equally soft voice, Yue replied, “You’re here, so it’s perfect.”
“Er, umm, I’m glad to hear that, but that’s not what I was asking.”
“He he, just kidding. There’s a lot I still don’t understand, and parts of your culture are confusing, but...I can tell.”
“Tell what?”
“Mmm... Well, that this is where I belong.”
Yue and the others had only been on Earth for about three months, but it seemed that had been enough time for her to accept the Nagumo house as her home.
Hajime smiled broadly, then hugged Yue from behind. She leaned even further back against him in return.
“That’s great. If there’s anything that’s stressing you out, just let me know. I’ll change the world if I have to.”
“When we’re changing the world, we have to do it together,” Yue said, grinning ferally up at Hajime. The two of them had changed Tortus already, so they were more than capable of transforming entire worlds. The rest of the world had to hope and pray that it never definitely pissed Yue and Hajime off.
The two of them stood there in silence for a while. After a few minutes, snow started falling from the overcast sky. It was a gentle snowfall, one that fit the peaceful atmosphere on the bridge over the river. The other people waiting for the fireworks were chatting cheerfully with each other, but Hajime and Yue paid them no mind, lost in their own world as they were. If a painter was here, there was no doubt they would desperately try to immortalize the two of them on a canvas. That was just how picturesque they looked, staring into each other’s eyes. Just then, though...