Ah, yet another tiring day of taking care of Cene... Seriously, I don't remember Nelly being this hard to deal with, but maybe that's just because she was quick to accept me. Yeah, looking back, she was really a daddy's girl from the very moment we met, and besides, her first impression of me was this handsome guy sitting atop a throne in a giant pyramid. Cene on the other hand, well, he only got some decrepit frail guy with half his long hair fallen off. In hindsight, I really should've stopped by a barber's or something like that, though I highly doubt they'd serve someone as haggard as me...
"Damn, how come of all the bones in my body, the teeth are the only ones that deteriorated?" I said as I scrubbed and flossed them to no end, consecutively spitting out a brownish red every time I washed the toothpaste out, "Cecily... I can't even peck her on the cheek with these damned things, much less anything further than that... Maybe one more scrub for good measure."
And so, still clad in nothing but my bathrobe and looking like some sort of monk, I had began putting on some underwear when the doors to the bathroom clicked open. Now depending on who it is that's about to get a good ogle at my bod, I'll either forgive them or kick them out of the house. Of course, if Cecily wishes to sneak in on me, I won't mind, but so help me if it's anyone else...!
"A-Ack!" Sigmund immediately closed the door after seeing me with my snake out, "S-Sorry Lune! I forgot you're here now, so I thought the bathroom was free and-"
"Out!" I kicked the door open, still wearing my bathrobe, "Everyone, get the fuck out!"
"Hey, what's going on?" The other tenants climbed upstairs only for me to shout at them as well.
"Are you deaf!? Everyone get the fuck out, now!" I pointed to the door downstairs, "I thought it wouldn't be an issue, but it's definitely too cramped in here with all of you! Get out, we're doing something about this!"
"Ah, did he reach his boiling point already?" Aru smugly remarked, "I guess we overstayed our welcome, guess it's time to find a new place to crash at-"
"Wrong." I lifted her by the back of the collar, just like you would a cat, "Sigh, I'm not kicking anyone out. But I do have an idea in mind to give everyone the space they need."
Thus, everyone went out through the front door single file. Starting with Ed, then Eleanor, Othelia, Issei, Sigmund, Camilla, then Cecily who was carrying Cene in her arms, and finally me, still in my bathrobe holding up Aru.
"Including me, that's 9 tenants in a single household." I said after telling them to stand side by side next to one another, "I get this house used to be an inn, so it has some guest rooms to spare, but that doesn't change the fact that the bills are piling up. We need a better way of doing things."
"Yeah, we definitely overstayed our welcome..." Issei was the first to speak up, "Sorry Lune, Othelia and I were planning on leaving soon anyways, so you can at least count us off."
"I agree, we didn't think we were gonna be crashing here as much as we did, but I'll look into buying a house somewhere in town." Ed also raised his hand to speak, "I can understand wanting peace more than anybody, so as soon as I get the money for it, I'll-"
"No, I didn't say any of you had to do that." I clapped my hands to shut them all up, "Rather, I had another idea in mind. This house has a ton of unclaimed plots, so why don't we just build a house for everyone. It's cheaper than buying a house, everyone gets to remain close by, and we all get our personal space!"
"Build... the houses?" They all tilted their heads.
"Lune, how is that in any way less expensive than buying a pre-existing house?" Sigmund scoffed, "Young man, I get you spent most of your life traveling from place to place, so you may not understand all the legal work that goes into actually building a house from scratch..."
"Actually, I can just Materialize all the materials needed for it." I said as I pulled out a few tools out of my hand wormhole, "And Issei can help me plan everything out. Honestly though, the only reason I'm even suggesting this is because we have Ed's muscles to help our scrawny asses out."
"A-Ah." Ed's parents stood there utterly stunned, "H-How did you do that?"
"Hm? This?" I pulled out a plank of wood to redemonstrate it, "Yeah, guess I didn't lose my Iro Abilities after my Eyes turned Rainbow. In fact it's way easier now, actually-"
"N-No, how are you making stuff appear out of thin air?" Sigmund asked once again before Ed calmly put his hand on his old man's shoulder.
"Yeah, Grim's travails were way easier, so to speak..." He said with dead Eyes resembling those of a dead fish, "He's riddled with ass-pull powers like that."
At this remark, only the people who previously witnessed my awesome Iro Abilities nodded in agreement, leaving those who had just saw me in action for the first time oohing and aaahing in amazement. Really, I can control the temperature around my body to affect the environment, slow down time in the heat of battle, Heal any wound whenever I want, be it mine or someone else's, but they're amazed by my ability to pull out whatever I want out of the palm of my hand? Actually yeah, that's more than fair...
"Well, if that's the case..." Issei figured, "Then let's just make one house for the Saints. That way we don't have to screw around with additional paperwork, and your house will be way less clogged, so Othelia and I can stay there."
"Issei!" Othelia scolded him.
"No, I think that's perfectly fine." I then adjourned the meeting before walking towards town, "Now, Ed and Issei, you guys can follow me to the town hall! Let's a g-!"
"Stop!" Everyone shouted.
"What is it?" I asked.
"You're still in your bathrobe..." Cecily pointed down.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Ah." I finally calmed down enough to realize, "T-Then, gimme a minute..."
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After I had enough time to calm down during my wardrobe change, I couldn't help but grow bright Red when I realized what I had just showed to all of my soon to be neighbors. Geez, Cene is gonna hate me for sure after this embarrassing stunt I pulled... Well, at least Cecily's used to it by now, so I doubt she'd care for too long. Anyways, I got properly dressed this time before calling out for my two bros so we could head out again.
"Actually Grim, if you're planning on building our house from scratch..." Ed suggested, "Maybe we should first get a proper plan before running to get it approved by the ministry."
"I concur." Issei nodded, cosplaying as some sort of weird gentleman, "Verily, it appears we must do this right if we are to make this business prosper!"
"Business?" I tilted my head, "Nah, you got it wrong. I'm only gonna make one house for Ed and his folks. I don't plan on making a business out of this."
"Aww, what?" He immediately ripped off his face moustache and monicle off as he once again spoke normally, "Damn, and I was just thinking about makign some pocket change..."
"Is making money the only thing on your mind?" Ed smirked.
"I can't help it, a world like yours is just begging to be flooded by technological advancements!" Issei reasoned, "And as someone who knows the gist of most of those aforementioned advancements, I can practically make a living out of any one of them! Like, do you know what a carrot pealer is?"
"Yeah, we have those already." Both Ed and I nodded.
"O-Oh, then..." He thought of another thing, "A breadbox!"
"Who would need bread for a box?" I asked myself.
"............."
"........................"
"...Anyways!" I returned us to the original theme of this conversation, "The house plan! I think we should first draw up a rough sketch of what all we want in it before looking at how we'll implement it."
"Yeah." Issei saw me Materialize a blank sheet of paper and a pen, "Then, let's ask the man in charge, shall we?"
"That would be me!" Sigmund suddenly showed up out of nowhere, "As the oldest male in the household, I believe there is no one more fit but m-ACK!"
"Sorry about him, boys." Camilla held him by the ear, "You're retired now, dear, ergo you're not the breadmaker, ergo you're not the man of the house anymore. Our son is."
"H-Honey..." He actually looked like he wanted to die out of sheer embarrassment, "Fine, but I ain't living in a house if it's poorly made."
"You're free to leave whenever you want, old man." Ed suggested offhandedly, "Actually, I'd kinda prefer not having to hear your nagging all the time."
"You shut it!" Sigmund threw a hissy fit, but his wife was close by, so she dragged him away before he could hinder us any further.
"Hah, anyways." Issei began drawing up the first floor, "I think the main hallway should be nice and spacious so it doesn't get cramped no matter what."
"Nice! Oh, but you know what we really need? A second bathroom!" Ed took the pen from him before he added it to the hallways, "Here, and there! Nice, now it's coming together!"
"Yeah, but we're still only on the first floor." I reminded him, "What if someone's on the top floor and they really gotta go?"
"Don't worry, we'll make a third bathroom up there later." Ed reassured me.
"Bathroom talk aside, what of the living room?" Issei chuckled before continuing, "I'm a firm believer in the idea that a family should always naturally funnel into that room, so how about we remove this wall and combine it with the hallway?"
"That's odd, is this how they build houses in Japan?" Ed asked.
"Phah! Japanese architecture is WAY better than anything your world has in store!" Issei drew a sketch of it on the corner of the paper, "The outside view looks sorta like this, but the real beauty comes from inside and-!"
"Hold." Ed stopped him, "I want that."
"Hm?" We looked at him, "What, the roof?"
"The roof, the wooden flooring, those sliding doors... Everything, really." Ed looked stoked, "I want my house to look exactly like that! It's unique, and I can already imagine how nicely it'll mesh with the surrounding garden!"
"You want a garden?" I looked surprised, "I mean, we live on an empty plains, but still."
"Well..." Ed huddled up close to us before whispering, "I've noticed recently that Anna's really garnering an interest in it, and I think she'd really like a garden with all sorts of flowers. Hope you don't mind, guys."
"Sniffle, such perfect husband material...!" I cried tears of envy.
"Marry me, I'm being deadass here." Issei too suggested through his tears.
"Sorry, but your boy's taken, fellas." He proudly boasted about his ring, "Not that I'd even consider it if I wasn't."
"Really? Even though I said deadass?" Issei asked.
"Is that like another rule of Japan or something?" Ed cocked his head back.
"No, it's an American thing, I think." He scratched his head, "I think they have a rule where it's okay as long as you're wearing socks."
"What are you talking about?" We furrowed our brows at him.
"Ah, speaking of socks, I'm pretty sure you need a wardrobe room." I noticed, "Add it up there inside the sleeping quarters."
"You mean the bedroom?" Ed asked.
"Ah, force of habit." I chuckled, "I guess I'm still used to living in the barracks."
And so, what we assumed would only take about a dozen minutes ended up prolonging into an entire day's worth of work. It was fun though, just sitting around the table, imagining the perfect house with my best friends. It really reminds me of the time Ed and I used to work on the hideout back in Whitehood. Yeah, good times... But these are better, cause they're in the future!