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He’s never said that about me before…
Oki, for all his pretty looks, did not mince his words.
“Mario’s got a ‘He never said that about me before’ look on her face.” he teased, the glare of his visor giving him an appropriately sinister look.
Ikoma turned.
The shininess of his grin was near blinding, and Mario considered investing in a pair of her captain’s signature goggles.
“But Mario, you’re cute too!”
And hence, began the quest to prove that she was cute.
- Ask R & D
“Director Kinuta! Do you think that Mario’s-”
“My daughter’s cuter.” he crabbed, sounding remarkably insulted by the fact that anyone else could ever be considered cute, despite that never being insinuated when the full question hadn’t even been asked. “Final answer.”
Though the answer was as expected, Mario’s mood soured.
The sound of crunching ice in did not help matters, and neither did the oppressive silence that followed.
Fuyushima, Border’s resident engineer turned trapper, saved her mood from plummeting to record lows.
“I think she’s cute.” he interjected, single-handedly raising her mood to a level that would have been embarrassing to witness if she had a mood-o-meter above her head which everyone could see.
The fact that Fuyushima was known to be weak to high school girls did not hamper the rush of appreciation Mario had for him, even if it proved to be slightly embarrassing.
Kinuta, with all his usual brashness, snorted in disgust, and Mario was suddenly tempted to sock the man into next Tuesday and back.
Then he muttered something she couldn’t hear, and the room exploded in semi-chaos.
Fuyushima, her saving grace, dropped to the floor, bawling messy tears as Kinuta let out his signature foghorn laughter.
It was a strange, strange scene, and one that they elected to let Oki to deal with.
- Ask the nicer members of management (the ones preferably at HQ).
“-cute, right?” Ikoma asked enthusiastically, his boundless enthusiasm making up for Mario’s sheer lack of it.
Her earlier high had all but vanished as she realised whom exactly Ikoma had intended to ask next.
The two of them had been talking cheerily in the hallway as Ikoma burst out of the lift, both of them clearly dressed to leave and go somewhere else.
Sawamura looked mildly surprised at the strange question, but nodded along enthusiastically, promptly fulfilling her unofficial role as the supportive older sister among the operators.
Shinoda looked decidedly baffled, and Mario felt a sudden wave of sympathy for the tounge-tied man.
“She’s amazing at crafts.” Sawamura enthused, which was very flattering except that for that fact that she didn’t really want anyone else to know the full extent of her love for cute things, of which Sawamura was oblivious too.
“She’s the one who made me this last year.” she continued, procuring the decidedly cute tiger key-chain from the depths of her coat.
Oh, heck.
Mario fixed her most apologetic expression on her face and sincerely hoped for the best.
“Get your coats.” Shinoda said, voice sounding uncharacteristically strained. “You’re coming with us for lunch.”
- Ask the lunch people
“-cute?”
“Super cute.”
Those words would have been almost embarrassing, had those words not been uttered by a small child who had already claimed two future brides and intended to claim her and Sawamura as well.
Luckily (depending on how you saw it), it had been said by a small child.
Rindo Yotaru, to be exact.
Perhaps it would have been more effective had the small child in question not been seated on a capybara.
Speaking of which, the capybara was really cute.
“His name is Rajinmaru.” the small boy chimed, tracking her gaze to the unbelievably cute animal. “You can pet his belly if you marry me.”
The capybara was really cute.
Her heart broke 5 seconds later, which was the exact amount of time it took for Rajinmaru to amber along to the table where Shinoda was seated and offer its belly for said rub.