Fruits Ripe

Episode 1d

-----At Lily's Job-----

"Welcome", Lily bowed slightly at her customers and then led them to a booth, " a server will be right with you."

"Why can't you serve us pretty girl?" One of guys in the group asked

"If that's what you prefer, I can" she said politely, " Let me take my next guests to their seats and I'll be back" she left quickly.

"Hi I'm sorry for the wait, Oh- Shigure Onii- Chan, are you alone?" Lily asked her eyes lit up in recognition upon seeing him.

"My my aren't you just adorable? Yuki is right behind me actually, just slow" Shigure said reveling a bit because she called him Onii- Chan

"I thought I told you to stop flirting with the servers Shigure" Yuki's voice sounded from behind him accompanied by the door's bell going off.

"Well I only flirt with the pretty ones" Shigure teased making Lily blush and fix her glasses. He moved to the side so that Yuki could actually see who he was talking to.

"Ah- Hello Miss little Honda" Yuki said blushing a bit when he saw her

"Follow me please, would you rather the bar, a table, or a booth?" She asked them

"Wherever you are serving my dear, is just fine" Shigure said with another teasing smile.

"This way, then" She led them right next to the booth where she sat the group of guys. There was space between them but close enough so she didn't have to strain herself too much. "I'll be right back", she told them then went to the group, "sorry for the wait what would you like today?"

"I want lemonade no ice" The ginger said leaning on his arm watching her curiously

"Ice Tea" The dark brown haired one smiled slightly

"Coca Cola" The light brown haired one bowed slightly

"Fruit punch light ice" The blonde smiled widely at her

"Are you on the menu sweetheart?" The black haired one, the same one that asked her to serve them, smirked looking her up and down

"This is a non- Cannibal restaurant" Lily responded without looking up, "So is water fine?" The other guys chuckled

"I'll take a sprite, then" he answered smirk dropping, but it changed to a grin

"Okay are you ready to order or need more time?" Lily asked them

"We'll just have Gyukatsu, Tempura, and Sushi with bowls of rice, Thank you" The blonde ordered for everyone.

"Okay I'll be right back with your drinks" Lily told them politely and then set their orders behind the bar through the kitchen window. Then she walked towards Yuki and Shigure's table, " Are you guys ready to order your drinks?"

"Just two Ice Teas" Yuki told her politely with a smile.

"Do you know what you want to eat?" Lily asked them before she walked away

"Oh two Bento dinner specials, please" Shigure chimed in

"Of course" she walked away to place their order with the kitchen, then made all of the drink orders to place on her serving tray.

The whole time she moved around, she could feel multiple eyes on her but she did her best to ignore them- she was used to it anyway. She balanced the tray before she carefully moved towards the group of guys. "Okay we have a lemonade no ice, an Iced Tea, a Coca Cola, a Fruit punch light ice, and a sprite. Your food should be done soon, excuse me" she lightly bowed her head and then headed to Yuki and Shigure's table with their drinks.

"Ah- the beauty is back" Shigure commented making Lily blush

"Two Iced Teas" she carefully placed them down, " Your food should be done in a bit"

"Plenty of time to talk then of course if you don't mind" Shigure gestured to the place next to him.

"I'm not allowed to sit with customers but we can talk", she said softly.

"If you don't mind, how come I almost never see you smile. And when you do, you cover your mouth", Yuki asked genuinely curious. What they didn't realize was that with the restaurant being quiet and it being so late, there wasn't many people there. So others tuned in to the conversation even some of her co- workers.

"It's a force of habit, not a lot of people like my smile," Lily started blushing at the sudden attention. "Ever since I was younger I've had to minimize my facial expressions, you see I have um dimples but they're kind of deep and some people found it really weird. I don't like making people uncomfortable, so I guess I just developed the habit of covering my mouth when I smile." She answered softly but loud enough to be heard by everyone.

"That's rubbish" The ginger haired guy from the next table called out, " you're quite beautiful, so I bet they were just jealous"

"Really?" Lily asked shyly

"Of course, you're gorgeous" the black haired guy that was flirting with her earlier said seriously, "Anyone would be lucky to have you" he added sincerely.

"T-thank you t-truly" She got so embarrassed she covered her head as the blush got out of hand.

"They're not wrong, well this just won't due. Come here darling, show us that pretty smile", Shigure carefully pried her hands from her face. "There now all you have to do is smile."

Lily took a deep breath and after seeing the encouragement on everyone's faces, she gave them a really big smile. Seeing her adorable bunny smile with her deep dimples on both sides, some of the guys either blushed or if they're like Shigure they got a nosebleed. It was the Innocence in her smile that looked slightly tempting without her even trying. It was the smile and the blush and the uniform altogether made seeing it an experience.

"Breathtaking", Yuki commented, he was one of the ones that blushed.

"Oh my, are you okay Onii-Chan?!" She asked Shigure seeing his nose bleeding, she hurriedly grabbed some tissues and gently pat the blood. But on hearing her call him that it started gushing again making her hand him more tissues.

"That pervert is perfectly alright" Yuki mumbled

"I'm fine," Shigure laughed it off and stopped the bleeding.

"I'll be right back with some wet tissue for you- Oh and your food" Lily said hurrying around and to the back.

"You're definitely a pervert" Yuki told Shigure when he saw Lily was out of sight

"And you definitely blushed, so I'm not the only one" Shigure said not even denying being a pervert.

At the other table the group of guys was also still trying to calm down as well.

"Whoever told her that was definitely jealous" the blonde pointed out

"She was so nervous, it's like she doesn't get compliments often" the light brown added

"Am I a pervert for thinking that she looked really tempting", the black haired one added unsure but still staring in her direction.

"Yes" all his friends answered at the same time.

"I'm back with all of your orders thanks for being patient", she smiled at them as she set down their food. "Enjoy".

"Here's the wet tissue for you and both of your orders, enjoy!" She smiled at them before she set off for the front. She switched the sign from Open to Close after a while and then started cleaning the empty tables.

-----At Tohru's Job-----

"No matter the challenge, I'll be able to overcome it all. Even living in a tent. No matter how small and flimsy, anywhere can be home once you get used to it." Tohru thought about how their situation came to be, while she did all her work productively.

"Our jobs have gotten so much easier since they hired the new girl." One of the older cleaning ladies.

"Yeah, no kidding" the other cleaning lady agreed.

"I wonder how work is going for Lily", Tohru wondered out loud. "I hope there was no trouble today"

"There's a young girl waiting for you downstairs hon," one of the older workers told Tohru in the employee room.

"Really? Thank you!" Tohru rushed to finish changing out of her uniform so that Lily wouldn't have to wait too long. "Good Night!" She called out to all the other workers before leaving the room.

Getting downstairs as quickly as she could, although she was feeling a bit sluggish, she didn't want to keep making her wait. Once she saw her, she ran over to hug her and surprised Lily.

"Onee- chan," Lily whined, "You scared me." She playfully pouted but couldn't hold her grin for long after she saw Tohru's cheeky smile.

"Come on let's go home, I'm tired" Tohru smiled a bit

"Hm... Sleepy or feeling under the weather?" Lily questioned noticing her flushed cheeks and sweaty hands. She knew that Tohru would try to hide it, but Tohru also knew that Lily was just as stubborn as her.

"Maybe both", Tohru commented after a moments hesitation and a sigh. She didn't want to admit full defeat but she also didn't want to lie to Lily. Lily was a human lie detector when she wanted to be and was very protective of her love ones.

"Well let's hurry home" Lily said surprising Tohru. She expected at least an 'I told you so' but Lily just wrapped an arm around Tohru in case she needed someone to hold on to.

The whole way back to the tent, the girls both talked about their day. There were no issues, which is why Lily was in a good enough mood to let certain things past. She especially didn't want to argue because she could tell that Tohru was getting really sick. So she just wanted to rush home without fuss. Tohru didn't want to push her cause she knew it wouldn't end the way she wanted. She may be older, but Lily was scary when she got angry.

"How was work Onee-chan?" Lily wanted to keep Tohru busy talking so that she wouldn't fall asleep while they were walking back to the tent.

"Oh you know it was great, got a lot of work done" Tohru went about excitedly explaining how she helped the older women, so they wouldn't strain themselves.

"Well I'm glad you had such a good day," Lily told her with a smile. Just as she said that, they reached the woods entrance. "Let's go more than half way there!" Lily cheered softly.