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Kazuma opened the door, peeking into the office, and only entered when he saw that no one was inside.
"Can you just tell me what you want to do?" asked Ryunosuke, coming after him.
Kazuma told him to be quiet. He was already walking towards the gothic arch at the back of the prosecutor's office, positioning himself beneath it, his head looking up.
Ryunosuke moved to his side, imitating him. A multitude of black eyes stared back at him, making him shiver.
“Can we get out of here?”
“No. I have to do this.”
He took the bag he had been carrying in his hand, the contents of which Ryunosuke was unaware of. He took out an apple. As he began to cut it with his sword, Ryunosuke's eyes flickered between Kazuma and the bats hanging on the ceiling.
"Are you here for… them?" Ryunosuke asked, looking at them out of the corner of his eye, still trembling slightly. “Is this what you wanted to do while Barok is gone?”
“Yes. And you should, too. Barok is our boyfriend and we should earn the trust of his… familiars.”
Ryunosuke muttered under his breath, wondering why did it had to be bats. Why Barok couldn’t adopt a kitten for his office.
Meanwhile, Kazuma took a piece of the apple and handed it to the bats. Ryunosuke looked at him.
“I didn't know bats ate fruit.”
“What did you expected them to eat?”
“I do not know. Bugs? Blood?” he said with a shiver.
"Don't be like that" Kazuma said. “They won't hurt you. They are more scared of you than you are of them.”
It seemed to be true, because the bats ignored him, despite all his efforts. Kazuma extended his arm as far as he could, waved the apple in the air, made noises at them that he would use to attract a stray cat. And nothing worked, the bats barely reacted.
“You are ungrateful. I took care of you while Barok was in jail…” he muttered.
"Why don't you put the fruit in a bowl and wait for them to come down? I don't think bats are going to eat from your hand.”
“They do that with Barok!”
He lowered his arm, still grumbling. He started to look around, trying to find an alternate plan. In the end, he stared at Ryunosuke.
“What?” asked the attorney, having a bad feeling.
“Put me on your shoulders.”
“What?!”
“Don't scream, you'll upset them.”
Ryunosuke looked at him, frowning. He noticed the muscles that clenched in the fabric of his shirt, compared to his weak arms.
"I don't think I can put you on my shoulders," he concluded, hoping that would put an end to the matter. Kazuma started to think, with a hand on his chin.
"Maybe you're right," he said, and Ryunosuke hoped he was done. His hopes were in vain. “Even better, I should put you on my shoulders.”
“Kazuma, no!” he said firmly.
“Come on. For me,” he said, with puppy eyes. It didn't work. “For Barok? Please, do you know how fond he is of these bats? I'm sure he'll be very happy if he sees that we've befriended them.”
Ryunosuke sighed. He had already lost to Kazuma.
He gave him the apple pieces and helped him climb onto his shoulders. Ryunosuke felt sweat running down the back of his neck as he saw the bats getting closer to him.
“Let's go. Now offer the fruit" Kazuma said. Ryunosuke tried to obey, he really did. But fear had him frozen and his arms wouldn't move.
Kazuma tried to get nearer, bringing Ryunosuke's body closer to the animals. However, this did not seem to please the bats.
His screech was heard, making Ryunosuke shiver. When he opened his eyes, he found a black cloud advancing towards him.
He screamed and backed away, terrified as the bats flew at him. Then, Kazuma completely lost his balance, and both of them ended up falling to the ground with a loud noise.
Kazuma groaned, watching the bats fly over him. Just when he thought the situation couldn't get any worse, he heard footsteps running down the hall and the door opening.
“What is going on here?” Barok's voice exclaimed. The prosecutor's eyes contemplated the whole situation, trying to understand what had happened.
Despite the pain from the fall, Ryunosuke and Kazuma tried to sit up, to give some explanation.
“Are you okay?” they heard Barok asking.
"Yeah, it was just the shock…" Ryunosuke murmured.
"I wasn't talking to you," said Barok. When they looked up, they found him with one of the bats, probably a pup, hanging upside down from one of his fingers. Barok looked at it kindly.
With a wave of his hand, he released it so it could fly home, under the gothic arch. Most of the bats were still flitting around the room.
Then he crossed his arms and gave Kazuma and Ryunosuke a hard look.
“What were you doing?”
“Barok, I swear we didn't mean to…”
"We just wanted to get closer to your bats," Ryunosuke said. “Befriend them.”
Barok looked at him, frowning. He opened his mouth to say something. But he stopped, suddenly holding Ryunosuke's wrist and looking at his hand.
“Were you going to touch the bats without gloves?” he said “Do you want to catch rabies?”
They did not dare to reply. They were already too embarrassed.
Barok sighed.
“Get out of here. Let me fix this mess.”
The two men left in silence.
"And they don't like apples," Barok said as they walked through the door.
***
To their surprise, days later, they were called to Barok’s office, where he offered a pair of gloves to each one. And then he gave them a bowl with some bunches of grapes.
"They like grapes," he explained.
"Of course they do," Kazuma said under his breath.
The progression was much slower than they had expected. First, they just left some grapes on the ground and waited for the bats to come down. They seemed reluctant to meet these strangers, but finally a few dared to fly down.
Then, Barok approached holding the grapes in his hands. He reached up, and some bats ate from his hand. Then, he told Kazuma and Ryunosuke to come closer.
Little by little, they got used to his presence, and their trust grown.
The bats seemed to grow fond of Ryunosuke rather than Kazuma. When he could stand by the bowl while the bats ate, Kazuma couldn't even get close without them flying away.
“I don't understand. I have been working in this office for a long time. Why haven't they gotten used to me yet?”
"Perhaps Ryunosuke has a natural charm," Barok said, looking at him with a little smile.
That charm worked, sooner than they expected. Ryunosuke raised a hand holding the grapes, and one of the pups flew down to him to eat.
He made a soft sound. When he looked at Barok and Kazuma, his eyes shined.
“Did you see it?” Then he looked at the bat again. The creature raised its head, its black eyes meeting Ryunosuke's. “You know what? When you look at them closely, they’re pretty cute.”